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How Trump can still win reelection

Published : Sunday, 18 October, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 242

WASHINGTON, Oct 17: Recent polls suggest Joe Biden has a significant and steady lead over Republican Donald Trump in this year's presidential race in both national preference and key swing-state surveys. Could history repeat itself with another Trump victory? If the president is taking the oath of office once again in January, here are five possible reasons why it happened.
Another October surprise
Four years ago, just 11 days before the election, FBI Director James Comey disclosed that his agency was reopening an investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state. For a week, related stories dominated the headlines and gave the Trump campaign room to breathe. Trump has promised that there's more to come, however. If this is just an opening salvo, setting up direct evidence of wrongdoing by Biden while vice-president, that could be a different, bigger story. Or perhaps there's another, wholly unanticipated and shocking campaign development that's just about to burst. If we could predict it, it wouldn't be a surprise.
The polls are wrong
Many Americans, for instance, are planning to vote by mail for the first time. Republicans are already promising to aggressively challenge mail-in ballots to prevent what they say could be the potential for widespread fraud - something Democrats have said is really an effort at voter suppression.  If voters fill out their forms incorrectly or do not follow proper procedure, or there is delay or disruption in mail delivery, it could lead to otherwise valid ballots being discarded. Understaffed or limited in-person polling places could also make it more difficult to vote on election day, discouraging Americans who had been considered by pollsters to be "likely voters."
A debate turnaround
Polls indicate Trump's aggressive, interrupting style didn't play well with suburban women, who are a key voting demographic in this campaign. Meanwhile, Biden held up adequately under fire, assuaging concerns among voters - played up by Republicans - that he had lost a step in his advancing age. Trump missed an opportunity to change his first-debate impressions when he backed out of the second scheduled debate because it had been switched from in-person to a "virtual format". He'll have one more chance on the big stage next Thursday and will have to make it count. If Trump presents a calmer, more presidential demeanour and Biden comes unglued or has some particularly dramatic gaffe, the balance of the race could possibly tilt in Trump's favour.
A swing state sweep
Some of the swing states he won - like Michigan and Wisconsin - seem to be out of reach this time. But if he can claw out narrow victories in the rest, turning out even more white non-college voters in places like Pennsylvania and Florida, he can reach the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House. There are even scenarios where he and Biden each get 269 votes, creating a tie that would be decided by the state delegations to House of Representatives, a majority of which would probably side with Trump.
A Biden fumble
Biden's electoral coalition is a hodgepodge of suburban moderates, disaffected Republicans, traditional working-class Democrats, ethnic minorities and liberal true believers. That's a lot of different and conflicting interests that could be stirred to anger if he gives them reason to.
Then there's the chance that, under the fatigue of the campaign trail, Biden shows his age and again raises concern about whether he is up to the task of being president. If he does, the Trump campaign will be poised to pounce.
The Biden campaign may feel it just has to run out the clock, and the White House will be theirs. But if they stumble, they wouldn't be the first political team to find a way to snatch improbable defeat from the jaws of what seemed certain victory.   -BBC









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