It may not seem like much to outsider observers but that Hail Mary with no time left on the clock gave Kamala Harris and the Democrats as much a victory as it did the Washington Commanders. It's called the Redskins Rule, dating back long before Washington changed its moniker. Whenever the former Redskins won its last home game before a presidential election, the political party in power has won the election. This dates back to 1940!
With polls all over the place, it is as good a predictor as any and I imagine the Harris camp was cheering on the Commanders, nee Redskins. It was a nailbiter as Chicago scored a touchdown with just 25 seconds left on the clock to take a 15-12 lead. They had a 96.4% chance of winning the game. Yet, Jayden Daniels had one last throw and made it count, much to the chagrin of Chicago Bear cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who was already taunting the crowd. You can imagine the Trump camp doing the same only to watch the tipped ball land in Noah Brown's hands like manna from Heaven.
Trump was at Madison Garden giving another one of his rambling speeches. Apparently, it had been a lifelong dream of his to be the center of attention at the Garden, as New York is not in play as much as his camp would like to think so. The last New York Times/Siena poll had Harris up by 19 points, slightly below Biden's victory margin in 2020. Yet, the New York Times couldn't resist reporting how Trump had made "inroads" in the city.
Not to be outdone, Kamala Harris was in Texas, a solid red state for the past 30 years, trying to give Senate hopeful Colin Allred a boost. It was a star-studded affair in Houston with Beyonce in the house! Some worry that all these stars at recent rallies obscure Kamala. However, she gave a fiery speech and I think held her own, albeit all you have to do is speak in complete sentences these days.
We are still led to believe it is an exceedingly close election with "dead heats" being reported in all the battleground states. The closest in history, a CNN pundit opined, seeming to forget that 2000 came down to "hanging chads" in Dade County, with George "Dubya" Bush winning with less than 500 votes in Florida to seal an electoral college victory, despite losing the popular vote to Al Gore. The Supreme Court interceded to stop the recount at the behest of the Republican secretary of state in the Sunshine State. It didn't matter that many ballots were being disqualified because they couldn't be electronically counted due to slight discrepancies.
Throughout this election I have marveled how it could be so close. It wasn't that long ago that we saw Donald Trump convicted on fraud charges in New York, sleeping through much of the testimony. Yet, he has managed to skate clean, at least for the time being, with no sentence being handed down. Everyone was hoping that Joe Biden would put the final nail into the coffin of Trump's third campaign with a strong debate performance in June, but Old Joe let the public down badly, After that, Trump saw his popularity soar through the roof, especially when some disgruntled Zoomer took a shot at him at a Pennsylvania rally in July. It looked like we would have our first convicted felon president.
Money came pouring into Trump's campaign. He now had high-priced lawyers to stall the remaining court cases against him and put off sentencing until after the election, when he imagined pardoning himself of all crimes and purging the Department of Justice. It doesn't matter that these are state election influence convictions and therefore unpardonable. He figured Judge Merchan will wilt like everyone else when he believes he will regain the presidency.
We all know the story now. Joe surprised everyone by stepping aside for Kamala Harris. Her popularity soared through the roof only to see it level off in September. Since then the polls have been registering a comeback by Trump. For what reason, no one knows.
He sounds more deranged than ever. Listen to him ramble for three hours with Joe Rogan, if you can. Joe tried to soften some of the harsher statements but Donald remained oblivious. Losing track of time, Trump arrived three hours late for a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, with many in the crowd having already left. I guess he thought he reached a bigger audience with Rogan.
His former Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, warned Trump would "rule like a fascist" by describing the fascist tendencies he saw on display while in the White House. No matter, Republicans quickly rushed to Trump's defense, calling Kelly's descriptions "just an opinion." Kelly should know better than anyone what Trump said. He was trying to tame the beast for three years but to no avail.
The only general Trump has left is Mike Flynn, who should have been stripped of his rank long ago given his associations with far right extremist figures and Vladimir Putin. Here he was saying that the "gates of hell" will be unleashed under Trump, referring to potential "military tribunals" and "executions" of perceived adversaries.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is being chastised for agreeing with John Kelly's assessment of Trump. Well, if he walks like a fascist and talks like a fascist, then he very well is a fascist. Yet, the polls still show a remarkably close election.
While most major newspapers have spelled out the danger of a Trump presidency and endorsed Kamala Harris, the Washington Post (owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos) and the Los Angeles Times (owned by "accidental" billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong) chose not to endorse anyone, resulting in mass exoduses from both editorial departments. These fabulously rich tech bros allegedly want their papers to be non-partisan, yet they both have Trump ties. Soon-Shiong the most notable, as he wanted to be "healthcare tsar" in his 2017 administration. Bezos was also recently seen hobnobbing with Trump. I guess healthcare tsar is still on the table, as are government contracts for Bezos. Of course, they will have to find a way to slide by Elon Musk's enormous ego.
It really is hard to fathom what is going on. The religious right, which Trump is counting on to carry him this election, appears to be all in on "prosperity theology" despite the old parable that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." (Luke 18:25) However, these are "Old Testament" Christians. There's no room for bleeding heart "New Testament" Christians. They are hoping that some of this outrageous wealth trickles down to them if they believe in Trump. This despite being told time and again they are being played for suckers by those closest to their golden idol.
Fortunately, these deluded souls don't tip the balance. Conservatives sitting on the fence tilt the balance. While many of them may believe in Ayn Rand's "Objectivism," they don't believe in a hostile takeover of our country. Some have chosen to endorse Harris. Others have chosen to write in their spouses. These are very prominent Republicans saying ixnay to Trump. Yet, we are to believe Trump is pulling new voters out of the woodwork who will more than make up for these disaffected RINO's. His so-called "hidden supporters." This despite Kamala Harris having enlisted tens of thousands of volunteers going door-to-door in a "get out the vote" campaign that rivals that of Barack Obama!
I admit I'm worried but if that "Hail Mary" means anything it means the forecasting gods are looking favorably down on Kamala. I would take the Redskin Rule over Nate Silver's gut. Fortunately, there are other predictors that are also pointing Kamala's way, namely the fact that Democratic Senate incumbents are doing well in the battleground states and I don't foresee voters splitting their ballots. I would settle for a last second touchdown at this point. I don't care whether Kamala Harris wins by 500 or 5 million votes, just as long as the Electoral College tips in her favor. However, thank you Jayden Daniels and Noah Brown for that beautiful throw and catch! Here it is again.
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