2020 Presidential Election Results & Exit Polls commentary thread

[Alben Barkley]

Just re-looking at the exits and I wonder if people are misinterpreting the data for race. Perhaps Trump's improvement with Blacks and Hispanics rests solely on his appeals to men? Black and Latino women voted close to how Black and Latino's overall have been voting in the 2010's. What changed was an increase with Black and Latino men - and I'm wondering if this has much less to do with Republican's making racial inroads as opposed to gender and education inroads.

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey

Trump polling 3% better than Biden on "policing and criminal justicce" is a bit depressing though.

I think that’s pretty solid proof that the whole “defund the police” thing was bad for us.

[Alben Barkley]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330148622898515969

Part of me is loving how salty he is about losing Georgia (and Georgia, specifically).  

This.

Why are Atlas liberals so upset about Trump becoming unhinged about the election results?  He has no chance in overturning the results.  We're literally watching him televise how his life is falling apart.  Just enjoy the show everyone.

Yes, let's all have fun watching somebody tell people with violent tendencies to "take back the country" and undermine the democratic processes.

Lets all sit back and watch with entertainment as Republicans show they are 100% willing to overthrow the election if an avenue were to ever open up.

It's this mindset that allowed people like Hitler to come to power, just watching on the sidelines and laughing, ignoring the danger that was in front of them.

Hitler wasn’t being laughed out of every court by his own judges. Hitler wasn’t sending out his senile old lawyer who is literally melting before our eyes to ramble incoherent conspiracy theories and can’t get the basics of the law right. Hitler didn’t have officials and legislators in his own party and administration contradicting him and distancing themselves from him.

That all said, I try to strike a middle ground here: Yes, it’s messed up we’re even talking about this, and Trump and all his enablers should be strongly condemned. But at the same time, it’s so hilariously incompetent and obviously doomed to failure I can’t help but laugh a bit.

[Alben Barkley]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330319750094860290

The world IS watching, with disgust and contempt for him. We ARE concerned with the integrity of our elections, and his attempt to destroy that and gaslight us all is despicable. It’s already been pointed to by our adversaries as evidence that US democracy is a sham. He’s proven right everything his critics have ever said about how illiberal and anti-democratic he is, how little he cares about the values this nation was founded upon, how quick he would be to destroy them forever if he could get away with it.

Donald J. Trump has crossed a line no other president or candidate in the history of this nation ever has, even in the most turbulent and contentious times before, even after heated and disputed elections — not Jackson, not Tilden, not Cleveland, not Hoover, not Ford, not Carter, not Bush, not Gore, not Clinton, nobody. He is the worst president of all-time, one of the worst human beings to ever live, and this country cannot be rid of him fast enough. I hope that after he is kicked out of office, he is banned from social media, driven bankrupt, rots in jail and dies from his gluttonous lifestyle sooner rather than later, ignoble and ignored. I hope he fears that fate right now. I really hope he is f—king terrified. I have NEVER had such active and intense disdain towards any person as I feel towards him.

What an absolute disgrace to this country. It might take the rest of our lifetimes to undo all the damage he has done, but we’re gonna fight like hell every day to do it if we have to.

[Alben Barkley]

Chairman of the Republican Party of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin:

https://twitter.com/RohnWBishop/status/1330153168311906304

Republicans everywhere, at all levels, are getting tired of Trump's BS.

Polls suggest otherwise, as does the voter turnout we just saw, as does what we’ve heard from many Republican senators, as do the comments on any Facebook/Twitter feed about this. Sorry but you seem to be very much in the minority of your party now.

What does give me hope is that those of you who DO see how insane all this BS is are now starting to realize that, frankly, we’ve been right all along. It has NEVER been about “voter fraud.” It has ALWAYS been an excuse to suppress the vote, primarily of minorities. This is just dropping all pretense and saying the quiet part out loud.

[Alben Barkley]

LOL Powell was too crazy for Trump and Rudy. She probably thought that they wanted her to say the most bats--t stuff possible, but maybe the Loeffler stuff was too far.

[Alben Barkley]

Tomorrow will be an interesting day.

I think Pennsylvania will go forward and certify.  Michigan election officials will likely deadlock 2-2 with the Republican calling for an audit to delay certification and chaos ensues...courts will now get involved. Maybe the Governor can step in and remove both Republican officials, this would likely also have court intervention. Michigan will be the state to watch.  No wonder why Trump has been all over Michigan officials. He sees an opening.

Michigan wasn’t even remotely close. This is absolutely outrageous. This unprecedented assault on democracy continues and it makes my blood boil that they’re even trying it, even if it is doomed to failure.

[Alben Barkley]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/michigan-gop-rep-fred-upton-tells-trump-its-over-and-the-voters-spoke

Another Republican says “it’s over,” significant that this one’s from MI I guess.

[Alben Barkley]

I think it's a good time to remember that while Trump's ridiculous efforts to overturn the election aren't gaining traction and will fail, the only reason this is even remotely possible is because the vast majority of republicans (not just politicians) only care about power and not the rule of law, morals, ethics, etc.   

These are the same people who preach about abortion being murder but could care less about senior citizens dying of covid.  Most of normal society doesn't realize what a cult like world 40% of the country lives in, which has grown because of outlets like FoxNews. 

[Alben Barkley]

So Michigan is certifying.

Pennsylvania seems to have only been delayed by an outbreak of COVID in a county, still on pace to certify this week.

That should be lights out. GA already certified and even AZ Republicans don't seem to be putting up with Trump's crap. So it wouldn't even matter what happens in WI.

[Alben Barkley]

https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1330975156014112768

The fact that it took him this long to figure that out, LOL

[Alben Barkley]

Well between this and the COVID vaccine news, I’m feeling hopeful that things will go “back to normal,” more or less, within a year or so.

As Churchill said: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

[Alben Barkley]

It's a bit funny to see how Biden got a higher vote share than Obama 2012 but everyone's treating this election like a nail biter but the 2012 one like a solid win

Pretty reasonable given how the mail-in ballots were heavily Democratic and came in relatively late, thus giving all of us Democrats election night flashback syndrome from 2016.

It's also understandable since Biden won the battlegrounds he needed very narrowly while Obama won all of them, except Florida, by the low to mid single digits at least. Going state by state in those specific ones and with a similar national popular vote margin. Obama's performance was really exceptional and that's also while accounting for the fact that he did worse almost everywhere in the country in comparison to 2008!

I don't like the way people seem to be trying to undermine Biden's success in this election, but there is no doubt that it vastly pales compared to both of Obama's. Maybe it's unfair to be comparing them though.

Biden did flip AZ and GA though, however narrowly. Two states Obama never won, hadn't been won since Bill Clinton in the 90s. In the end, he flipped everything he was "expected" to except NC and FL; the first was very close and the second has never been trusted, especially after 2018. If you just showed people a year ago the final map, including margins, they would consider it a resounding success.

Really, I think it's very clear that the biggest reason people found it underwhelming is the late ballot-counting left things hanging and feeling uncertain for so long. That said, it was possible to do the math and figure out the likely result on election night/early the morning after; by 5 AM November 4, I was calling the 306 map, as were several others in this very thread. It just didn't feel quite the same as seeing everything called by the networks and light up on their maps in a single night like it did in 2012.

[Alben Barkley]

They unstickied the thread!

Well gentlemen (and ladies), it has been a privilege posting with you these past few weeks. But it looks like the 2020 election season is just about (finally) over.

[Alben Barkley]

Before this thread fades away, I have to post something that I’m ashamed to say I forgot to post after the winner was called even though I promised myself years ago that I would.

Oh well, better late than never.