Steve M at NMMNG notes that Trump and his henchmen have decided to pivot to the economy, which is certainly better than his “medical” intervention but comes with a big risk:
We all know that Trump’s poll numbers have been slipping, and he was not impressing voters even before Disinfectantgate. But why this, when polls continue to show that voters are more afraid of the coronavirus’s health effects than they are of the virus’s economic impact?
I know that having meet-and-greets with CEOs is easy, while overseeing a nationwide crash program to increase testing and tracking would be hard. I know that Trump would rather project a positive image than perform a difficult task.
But I keep thinking about the big blue number in the lower right-hand corner of this chart:
In polls, Joe Biden is running 15 points better against Trump than Hillary Clinton did among voters 65 and older. Why would that be?
I’m 61. I’m in good health — but I have no idea what would happen to me if I contracted the virus. Maybe Donald Trump assumes he’ll never die, but I don’t. Until now, I assumed it wouldn’t happen for a while. I don’t know if that’s a reasonable assumption anymore.
Of course older people are worried. But Trump, the Power of Positive Thinking guy, doesn’t want people to worry. He wants them to go back to work and shopping, because that’s what his rich donors want. He wants a roaring economy again, because it never occurs to him that presidents can get reelected in tough times, if they’re seen as doing all they can to minimize the pain. Instead, Trump is telling Americans — especially the worried elderly — to ignore the pain. Ignore the danger. Ignore their own completely understandable fear of death.
He’s not only losing old people. According to this USA Today poll, he’s losing Independents and …. men.
More than nine of 10 Republicans say they will vote for him. But among independents, his standing has plummeted by 18 percentage points since the poll taken in December, to 27% from 45%.
Trump also has lost support by double-digits among men, a group that has been part of his political base. While men still back Trump over Biden 46%-35%, that’s a narrower advantage than in December, when it was 56%-30%. Women now support Biden 53%-30%.
Maybe the latter can be happy-talked into going back into his corner over the economy. But he’s going to need to do some world champion spinning to make that happen. Blaming blue states and lying isn’t going to convince anyone.
The older people can’t be convinced that everything’s fine when they are witnessing people their own age dying in huge numbers from this thing and living in fear that they will get it. Chit chat about GDP, oil prices and restaurants opening in Georgia aren’t going to cut it.