It should be recalled that the aggregate polls in 2020 had Biden ahead by 7.2 points prior to election day. Biden won by 4.5 points, demonstrating that the polls underestimated Trump’s strength by 2.7 points. Of course these current 2024 numbers are made up almost entirely of polls taken prior to the debate.
Where It Stands
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Debate? While watching it, my son came down from his room because he thought we were watching a comedy. He said that he kept hearing me laughing.
In 1944 the Democrat power brokers had a problem. A sickly Roosevelt had announced for a fourth term. His VP was a radical Henry Wallace who subscribed to just about everything in the Communist Manifesto and was a real turn off to the main line Democrats, especially the Catholics who had come on board courtesy of Al Smith. Since those running the convention knew more of Roosevelt’s health than the public, the objective was to see that a proper care taker Vice-President was in order if (when) Roosevelt left the scene. Party Boss Tom Pendergast put for Sen Harry Truman of Missouri, a WW I military hero, business failure, and a cypher as a politician. The strings were pulled, Truman got in and the only surprise was later in 1948 when this “interim” president was re-elected. Although it would be bad form to speak of this aloud in public, be sure it is a lively topic in the smoke filled rooms.
Tom Pendergast would die in January 1945. In 1939 he was convicted of income tax evasion and served 15 months in Leavenworth. After he got out he lived quietly and had no further involvement in politics. Truman got the nod from Roosevelt because of the good press he got heading the Truman committee in the Senate, attacking manufacturers for making shoddy goods for the troops. Truman had one conversation of no consequence after Roosevelt picked him for Veep. In 1948 the Democrat party was divided into three with the Dixiecrats who nominated Strom Thurmond and the Progressives under Henry Wallace. Amazing that Truman won. Henry Wallace, to his credit, in 1952 published an article Where I Was Wrong, repudiating Communism and his Leftist supporters who followed the line from Moscow.