* Recent polls continue to show Joe Biden holding a strong lead among registered voters in six battleground states carried by Trump in 2016: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Florida.
* Biden doesn’t leave Delaware too often these days as his campaign continues to benefit from his unprecedented virtual status. But when he does pivot out–most recently to Lancaster, Pa.–he makes the most of it. No gratuitous gaffes–just an on-point message that effectively juxtaposes the former vice president to the buffoonish narcissist winging it to rally his delusional, cult-figure-channeling base.
The Lancaster sortie focused attention on the expansion of the Affordable Care Act. He put it in terms that the average American can relate to during a pandemic. “If Donald Trump has his way,” noted Biden, “complications from COVID-19 could become a new pre-existing condition.” That resonates a lot more with the non-Trumpster majority than sophomoric nicknames and demeaning tweets coming from the lounge actor in the Oval Orifice.
* The United Farm Workers union has announced its “elections matter” endorsement of Joe Biden.
* September 29 is the first Trump-Biden debate; it will be held at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The other two will be Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. The Oct. 15 debate (aka “town meeting”) will be at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Biden’s female vice presidential choice will debate VP Mike Pence on Oct. 7.
* “President Trump may soon need a new nickname for “Sleepy Joe” Biden. How does president-elect sound?”–From a Wall Street Journal editorial.
* The House recently moved to approve D.C. statehood. The District of Columbia, with a population of 700,000, has more people than Wyoming and Vermont. Its budget is larger than a dozen states. Its bond rating, Triple-A, is higher than that of 35 states. And it has a “representative,” Eleanor Holmes Norton, who cannot vote.
The Republicans are, unsurprisingly, fine with the sovereignty-challenged status quo, however much it marginalizes and shortchanges D.C. residents. Taxation without representation: Remember that? What would our selectively-prescient Founding Fathers say? Would they care that D.C. would become a blue state?