WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Monday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
· So many voters. So many of them early voters, about a hundred million. A nation’s electorate energized, an outpouring of civic determination. A tidal wave of turnout already accomplished and projected. And so much nervous anticipation.
· And instead of the calm before or after the storm, a storm within a storm. That would be the raging presidential tweet Monday night against a Supreme Court affirmation of a Pennsylvania court ruling against the Republican position. It allows the counting of votes up to three days after Election Day. The ruling, Trump wrote, is so “VERY DANGEROUS” in encouraging “rampant and unchecked cheating” that it “will also induce violence in the streets.” Twitter replaced that tweet with its cautionary tag, “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.” Trump told reporters of the high court, “It must have been a political decision.” Bottom line question: Is Trump blaming the Supreme Court for what he says is likely violence?
· Otherwise a time for Trump and Biden supporters to be full of hope. And for the many lawyers on both sides, taking notes of every possible glitch, ready to descend on courtrooms with challenges of late counting, of late arriving ballots, of potentially flawed ballots, of challenging the challenges. The Supreme Court of the United States is ready to be the final arbiter if necessary.
· Angry car and pickup truck caravans. People ready to march, preparing their sign materials Tuesday night. Some police departments summoning every single officer to report for duty Tuesday evening. And there is some new Election Day nomenclature like “non-scalable fencing” surrounding the White House to be finished overnight. Is it the plywood election? Or perhaps oriented strand board election, which the cameras show is everywhere in major cities protecting shop windows, apartment entrances, anything a mob can ruin. The nation’s capital has it everywhere. OSB panels are about three or four dollars cheaper than plywood, after all.
· Probably no one is more relieved to be at this point than the Trump campaign advance teams. Politics aside, a campaign appearance marathon for the history books, finishing with a grand flourish of six different cities, finally ending in Grand Rapids. Except for those left in the cold in three cities afterwards, a logistics triumph for the Trump advance teams who made it happen.
· Was it enough? Were the massive MAGA rallies the key to Trump’s survival? Or was Biden’s calculation that Trump’s recounting of grievances, downplaying the virus, accumulated to be a net negative for the incumbent?
· Biden in Pittsburgh late Monday. “The power to change this country is in your hands.” Lady Gaga singing. A lot of honking from cars in which his supporters stayed away from the virus. President Trump’s supporters in Kenosha and Grand Rapids displayed more masks but no distancing.
· Trump in Kenosha: “Get your kids back to school.” “We will quickly eradicate the virus.” Joe Biden will bring no schools, no graduations, no weddings, no Easter, No Fourth of July. No fracking. Once again, “With the exception of Abraham Lincoln, no other president has done as much for the black community.” Then a long blooper reel played on a Jumbotron, filled with Biden gaffes. The crowd chanted “four more years.” A cameo by Don Jr. with Kimberly Guilfoyle. “Make liberals cry again,” he said. Then Jared Kushner and daughters Ivanka and Tiffany. “He works so, so hard every single day. Washington has not changed Donald Trump. Donald Trump has changed Washington,” said Ivanka. Then Jared, “It took a leader like President Trump to come in a shake things up a little bit.”
· Now for the surprises. And there may be many surprises. Is Pennsylvania really the pivot point or will it prove to be irrelevant? Georgia, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and more states will have either starring roles or be eclipsed by results elsewhere. The House and Senate, especially the Senate, are for many as important as the presidency. With a likely runoff in one race, Senate control may take a while to determine. And a Trump win would mean the vice president could break ties in an any temporary even split.
· Meanwhile, quietly in the background, the overshadowing virus continues its relentless spread. Cases Up 45% in two weeks to an all-time high. The death toll, 231,400. Does the choice for president actually influence what that number will be in January? How much else of the future is to be determined by the vote?
· Upcoming economic data includes the Redbook read of same-store retail activity last week at 8:55a ET and factory orders at 10a. The morning’s ISM manufacturing purchasing managers report exceeded expectations as Kevin Kastner details elsewhere on this macenews.com site. It helped buoy the Dow which gained 1.6% and the S&P finished 1.2% ahead. The Nasdaq, that had dipped into negative territory, climbed back up into positivity by 0.42% at the close.
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Content may appear first or exclusively on the Mace News premium service. For real-time email delivery contact tony@macenews.com. Twitter headlines @macenews.com.