We're just a few days out from what I think will be a close election that will impact he lives of Americans regardless of who wins. One of the things that I think people are paying way too much attention to are the polls, which as I've been saying for awhile are almost always WRONG.
What many may not realize is that partisan groups often pay for these polls in order to boost the standing of their candidate, and to affect turnout against their opponent. Take the fact that the race is currently reported as "TIED" for instance...
They want to Manipulate you...
While I believe it's close, I don't necessarily think that it's 48/48 or thereabouts. Saying that the race is tied benefits both candidates, as it gives the impression that they're both still in the hunt and helps to get people off their lard asses and actually vote.
I keep going back to the 1988 election when democrat Michael Dukakis was reported as having a 17-point lead over republican George Bush just a few months out from election day. This caused many democrats to not bother registering to vote thinking that their man had the win in the bag, only to see the republican slowly close the gap and seal the victory in the end.
If you were a democrat back then and saw that your guy was 17 points ahead of the other, would you bother going through the hassle of registering to vote? Many didn't, and regretted their decision after it was too late to do so.
Hence the importance of polls in shaping public perception and having the potential to affect outcomes...
That's why I don't believe ANY of these polls.
Remember when Clinton was reported to be ahead of Donald Trump by 6 points back in 2016? All one had to do was to look at the small and sleepy crowds at her events to wonder (as I did) that something must be wrong with the polls.
The Joe Rogan Effect
Trump was smart to do Joe Rogan, and Harris was smart not to. It humanized Trump a little bit, and I was impressed that he was able to go toe-to-toe for 3 hours with Joe. He did the absolute right thing in keeping the crowd in Michigan waiting as the JRE chat was very important in exposing himself to more voters.
I watch almost every podcast episode that he puts out and many of the people that I know do as well. He has huge reach, and it only helped Trump to be on it.
Harris on the other hand had absolutely nothing to gain by going on Rogan. She is word-salad city as shown during recent interviews where she couldn't give a straight answer to even simple questions. 3 hours with Joe would have resulted in numerous clips going viral of her talking herself into knots on a very big platform. Smart move to stay away. The less the voters see of that the better.
Don't fall for that nonsense that Joe is an even-handed, middle-of-the-road libertarian (that what conservatives are calling themselves now that the word "republican" has the same taint that "liberal" now has. When you hear someone describe themselves as libertarian, just translate it as conservative in your mind).
Rogan is conservative, although he adjusts his viewpoints depending on who his guest is. Bring a lefty on, and he takes progressive positions. Add a right-winger, and suddenly he's MAGA-lite, you get the picture.
If Harris had done his podcast, he would have eaten her alive...
Like Taylor Swift, Joe Rogan can as they say in the concert business, "put asses in the seats" and I think that each candidate did exactly what they needed to do via Joe to help them in the upcoming election. Let's hope it worked.
I think this election will be close, but that ONE candidate has enough of a lead right now in order to win this race.
Of course unforeseen actions such as the foolish "island of garbage" comments at the Trump MSG event and Biden referring to MAGA members as "garbage" can also have an effect on turnout. I'm sure that both camps now regret these polarizing remarks and wish they could take them back, but it is what it is.
There's still time left, and anything can happen between now and election day. I think I know who will win, and we'll see if that happens in just a few days.