Not a good week, but not by any stretch the worst week of his campaign by any means, nonetheless of any candidate in history. The whole month of June was far worse for him politically than this.
Late October-Early November 1980 was a disaster for Jimmy Carter. But this week may take the cake.
I'm now convinced that 2020 is a redux of 1980. As we move into October, it is looking increasingly likely that Biden will win by a margin comparable to that of Ronald Reagan's that year-and Trump's litany of disasters parallel those which engulfed Carter. His poor debate performance is similar to that of Carter's-Reagan's "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" was the death knell for the Carter campaign, and so will Trump's rambling prove to be for his.
Carter's approval was well below 40% in 1980, Trump's is at 45-46% and roughly -7. There is no comparison. Furthermore, people continue to believe they personally are better off than four years ago even though they believe the country was better off four years ago. There is no comparison on the economy either. To believe this is 1980 redux is wishful thinking (and I mean than respectfully). Large chance Trump loses but this doesn't look AT ALL like 1980 objectively.
Trump had a good few weeks following the week or so he got covid, so it ended up not really mattering. Despite people thinking this was the death knell of Trump's campaign and very bad polling in the midst of it, he recovered very quickly. It was basically the Access Hollywood tape of this election, the incident that made people believe Trump was going to get completely slaughtered. This election NEVER looked like 1980 fundamentally, it was always a faulty and wishful comparison that Dems could point to re-assure themselves.
