Rally size

[_subgenius]

Has anyone been noticing the attendance at both Trump and Biden rally? It seems that news reports pan across the whole crowd at a Trump rally more often than at a Biden rally. Has anyone seen consistent reports on this topic?

[_Brackite]

Why is Trump doing these big rallies in he midst of a pandemic??? The Coronavirus is resurging.

On Friday, 10 states reported their highest one-day counts: Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to Johns Hopkins.

As infections rise, so, too, have hospitalizations. In New Mexico, hospitalizations have increased 101% this month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said.

More hospitalizations will likely be followed by a rise in daily coronavirus deaths, said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/18/heal ... index.html

Trump's rallies make no political sense. Here's why he does them anyway.

(CNN) - President Donald Trump's bout with coronavirus gave him the chance for a reset on the top 2020 election issue. Characteristically, he has spurned it.

Instead of projecting newfound empathy and sobriety, Trump has flaunted his recklessness at packed, mostly maskless campaign rallies. That gleeful abandon, as he bleeds support from voters fearing he hasn't taken the pandemic seriously, makes no political sense.

But it makes perfect emotional sense for a President who craves the applause of a zealous minority. His hunger for affirmation explains much about his conduct of the presidency -- and why it may soon come to an end.

Trump won the White House by eking out an Electoral College majority on the strength of a narrow but intense support base among less-educated White conservatives. He lost the popular vote, and became the first president in the era of modern polling never to reach 50% approval.

Nor has Trump seriously tried to broaden his appeal. Even after a wrenching midterm election defeat in 2018, he refused to temper his vitriolic style or hard-right approach to issues from immigration to taxation to health care to the environment.

He prefers the safety and comfort of audiences that already embrace him over the uncertainty and risk of encountering those who don't. As President, he has visited West Virginia, which he won in 2016 by 42 percentage points, eight times. By the tally of CBS White House Correspondent and real-time historian Mark Knoller, that's the same number of visits as he's made to California, which has a population 20 times larger but rejected him by 30 points.

Fighting from behind in his reelection campaign, Trump now lavishes attention on battleground states. But he still won't moderate his message.

Once the pandemic shook Americans and shattered the economy, political prudence argued for an aggressive, focused federal response. Trump refused, indulging the reluctance of supporters who imagined it would mostly harm blue states but spare red ones.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/18/poli ... index.html

[_Brackite]

Even with Trump's big rallies, he is going to lose the popular vote again. The only real question is that will Trump be able to eking out a very close Electoral College win. Michigan and Wisconsin will very likely go to Biden this election. It will likely come down to Arizona and Pennsylvania this election.

[_Jersey Girl]

The plight of various groups within and also the very whole of the American people aren't real to him. Example: his stupid remarks about suburban women show that he hasn't got even a shred of a clue. And don't get me started on his blather to seniors.

This is how I see the rallies and all. Pandemic aside, the rallies are his ONE source of narcissistic supply. That's where he can say incoherent things for an hour or whatever to resounding applause each time he makes a statement or claim. It's a sure thing and a safe bet. Actually it's no bet at all. He opens the Pez dispenser and out comes the candy. When it gets empty, he fills it up with a new supply.

His base of followers are the exact same type of people who sit in church every day waiting for the Pastor or Priest to tell them what the Bible says and never opening it themselves because they have no intellectual curiosity at all and/or are too lazy to investigate.

And that's where it stands today. I only hope that the people we see waiting in long lines determined to vote early and in person are there because they are fed up with Trump's steady stream of bullsh-it and destruction.