Campaign Tales from the PA Trail
Everyone's favorite state.
The Hill reports some good numbers for Harris: Harris leads Trump by 5 points in Pennsylvania: Poll. (The pollster in question has 2.8, out of 3, stars in the 538 database).
Meanwhile, according to Axios, Swing state voters back Trump over Harris on key global questions: poll.
Voters in six key swing states think former President Trump is more likely than Vice President Harris to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, respond effectively to a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan, and advance U.S. interests internationally, according to new polling from the Institute for Global Affairs.
Harris is working the non-urban portions of the Keystone State, also according to Axios: Scoop: Harris courts rural Trump voters in Pennsylvania. This strikes me as smart. A relatively small number of votes per precinct could be what it takes to win the state.
Meanwhile, the AP reports that Trump is campaigning in PA as well: Trump listens during a farming event in rural Pennsylvania, then threatens John Deere with tariffs.
Anyone, and I mean literally anyone, who thinks that Trump is “more likely to respond effectively” to ANYTHING is clueless. Utterly *^cking clueless.
At the last link Trump said he’d impose a 200% tariff on John Deere equipment made in Mexico. Do I hear 300? Apparently tariffs have replaced trickle down tax cuts as the cure for whatever ails us.
@Jen: Clearly, you’re ignoring his astonishingly remarkable success in his nuclear arms deal with North Korea and the Javanka agreement that brought peace to the ME, to name but two of his amazing FP triumphs.
“Utterly *^cking clueless” is too generous. Delusional, unhinged from reality? Closer, but maybe not quite there.
In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the Republicans are attempting to interfere with mail voting:
McCormick Joins RNC In Lawsuit to Stop Montco Mail Ballot Distribution
Meanwhile, they were also in court arguing that:
1. Mail ballots with minor errors like missing dates should not be counted
2. But voters are not allowed to fix any of those errors
GOP asks Pa. Supreme Court to bar counties from letting voters fix mail-in ballot errors
They’re also separately in court arguing that if your mail ballot gets rejected, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote in person either:
Pa. voters can cast a provisional ballot if their mail ballot is rejected, court says
So it would appear the real strategy is to suppress voting as much as possible.
@Stormy Dragon: As far back as the Reagan Era, I noticed something about Republican leadership: whenever they were challenged on their appeal to minorities, women, urbanites or some other group, their answer was immediate and uniform, “We must do a better job of educating them on how our policies are best for them.” Since that time I’ve had my eye out for even one instance of a Republican saying, “I need to spend some time listening to them to understand their interests and goals better.” Has never happened. When a Republican leader says they are listening to some group, it is always, always farmers, businessmen or church leaders. It is never, ever, one of their out groups.
But I guess there are no longer enough traditional Republicans left to keep up even that pretense. The goal now is to keep those groups from having a meaningful say in government. They are no longer going to “educate” minorities on what’s best for them, and they never intended to listen to them. So boxing them out of power is the only avenue left.
@Stormy Dragon: So it would appear the real strategy is to suppress voting as much as possible.
[Shocked face, drops teacup mid-sip.]
“A relatively small number of votes per precinct could be what it takes to win the state.”
Yep. Before I went out to knock on doors for Harris this past weekend, the person assigning us to areas told us that Trump’s margin in 2016 was about 4 voters per precinct.
@Stormy Dragon:
Does McCormick not realize that ballot processing in Pa can only BEGIN at 7am on Election Day?
The lawsuit is not just frivolous, it is intentionally designed to interfere with the voting process. IMO, plaintiffs here should be sanctioned.
@Jen:
The public may be right about ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. If he brings full US pressure to surrender absolutely on Gaza and Ukraine they may have no choice.
@Pete S: I think it’s pretty obvious by his debate answer on Ukraine that he’d definitely “end” that war by doing whatever he could to ensure Putin’s victory.
@Jen:
Yes, but it’s not malevolent in intention. Most people were raised by parents who did not require them to pay attention to what’s going on the broader world.
Most people are focused on their own personal struggles and psychodramas, and distracted by other entertainments. It’s really easy to be blissfully unaware if one does not actively seek out in-depth coverage.
@DK:
Are you making the case for restriction of voting rights on the basis of “blissfully unaware” ?
@Bobert: I don’t think he is, but my only objections to such a plan would be our checkered history with literacy tests and poll taxes. If someone can guarantee the plan will be equally administered for all cohorts, count me in. I’ll even rig my own personal test to show me blissfully unaware.
Living in PA its awful. Non-stop ads, phone calls, texts, mail. The signs are starting to show up but doesnt like as many as 2016 or 2020.
Steve
@Stormy Dragon:
This despite the fact that, since the 2019 election law changes were implemented in 2020, PA voter information has stated that voters may be issued a provisional ballot for the reasons including… Voter returned a completed absentee or mail‐in ballot that was rejected, or they believe will be rejected, by the county board of elections and they believe they are eligible to vote
(Voting by Provisional Ballot). They’re grasping for any excuse to reject ballots.
And McCormick may not be familiar with PA voting processes, nor have to put up with the non-stop political ads over air, cable, streaming, web, etc. from his home in Connecticut.
@Eusebio:
You are referring to the Dave McCormick that is running for the office of Senator from Pennsylvania?
Why would a candidate be familiar with the voting processes in the state he wants to represent?
John Deere, just doing what other manufacturers have been doing for years. They’ve been holding farmers over the barrel for years with their DRMed equipment and preventing non-Deere repair shops & farmers from repairing devices they own, so I’ve got no tears to shed for whatever happens to them.
It will be interesting seeing how business Trumpers will react… Probably buying more Trump Bibles and Trump-coin to keep him from doing it to them…
@Bobert:
Why, yes—that guy running for the US Senate from PA.
It bears keeping in mind that comprehensive election legislation was passed in 2019 by the PA state House and state Senate, both of which had Republican majorities. One of the key provisions of the law was that absentee or mail-in ballots were made available to all voters, which was fine until MAGA began to demonize mail-in voting. Now there are lawsuits attempting to disqualify mail-in ballots at every turn. And I can’t help but to think the specter of SCOTUS nullification looms in the event of a very thin D win.
@Moosebreath: Thank you for knocking on doors!