NEWS AND OPINION:
So how are all the candidates faring in the wake of complicated campaigns and shrill media coverage centered on Election Day and final election results?
“It’s an intense time for candidates,” said campaign consultant Louis Perron, author of the “Beat the Incumbent: Proven Strategies and Tactics to Win Elections,” published by the Radius Book Group in January.
“Deep inside, all candidates think about winning and losing — but the latter is suppressed. This unleashes a lot of energy. It’s also the time where candidates stop sleeping and campaign day and night. It’s another way of dealing with the fear of losing that you don’t want to leave any stone unturned,” Mr. Perron said in a written statement shared with Inside the Beltway.
“It’s like in sports. One thing that the winners have in common is that they are scared to death of losing,” he said.
The campaign guru also doubts that undecided voters are really undecided. They may just have a preference for a certain U.S. president.
“Most independents are not really independent. Corollary — and most undecideds are not really undecided. There is a case to be made that the chunk of them are hidden Trump voters,” Mr. Perron said.
THE MARATHON MAN
A round of applause, please, for House Speaker Mike Johnson — whose marathon “campaign swing” included visits to 75 cities in 24 states in October and right up to the day before Election Day.
“No matter where I am around the country, the number one concern is the cost of living and the border. Those two things, but usually cost of living — moms and dads having to get second, third jobs just to put groceries on the table. It’s not sustainable,” Mr. Johnson told Fox News on Tuesday.
The Louisiana Republican also had a prediction.
Former President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress, he said, “will turn the economy back on” with some clear tactics.
“We’ll unleash the free market again. How about we extend the Trump-era tax cuts and then we take a blowtorch to the regulatory state? We’re going to get the government off the backs of job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers and that is what will unleash the economy, again, like we did in the first Trump administration,” Mr. Johnson said.
THE ELON FACTOR
Billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk drew almost as much coverage as many political candidates on Election Day. Here are a few headlines from the last 24 hours:
“Elon Musk could be the biggest winner of a second Trump term” (NBC News); “Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes can proceed, a Pennsylvania judge says” (The Associated Press); “Elon Musk pushes ‘ballot curing’ in Pennsylvania, eyeing tight margin” (The New York Times); “Alarm grows over Trump and Musk’s blizzard of baseless voter-fraud claims” (The Guardian); “Elon Musk says he’s a global top 20 ‘Diablo 4’ player, and it’s actually true” (Forbes); and “Elon Musk kicks off Election Day by sharing his worst conspiracy yet” (The New Republic).
A VOTE WITH A VIEW
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station voted Tuesday from their lofty home above Earth, according to space.com.
“Just like any other American away from home, astronauts may fill out a Federal Post Card Application to request an absentee ballot. After an astronaut fills out an electronic ballot aboard the orbiting laboratory, the document flows through NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico,” NASA said in an online guide to the process.
“From New Mexico, NASA transfers the ballot to the Mission Control Center at NASA Johnson and then on to the county clerk responsible for casting the ballot. To preserve the vote’s integrity, the ballot is encrypted and accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk,” the guide said.
“Astronauts have voted in U.S. elections since 1997 when the Texas Legislature passed a bill that allowed NASA astronauts to cast ballots from orbit,” it added.
A STRATEGY OF NOTE
Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris revealed a little strategy in a public speech on Election Day, and here’s what she said.
“It is my pledge to you to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make, to listen to experts, and to listen to people who disagree with me because I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. By the way, listen — we are fighting for a democracy right now. And we love our democracy,” Ms. Harris told a crowd in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“Democracy can be a bit complicated sometimes, but that’s OK. We are fighting for a democracy, which is why I say that I am not going to be a leader who thinks that people who disagree with me should be put in jail, that they are the enemy. I’ll give them a seat at the table, because that’s what real leaders do and that’s what strong leaders do. And it is my pledge to you to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans,” the vice president said.
POLL DU JOUR
• 46% of registered U.S. voters think the country “will never recover” if their preferred candidate for president loses.
• 48% of Republicans, 48% of independents and 44% of Democrats agree.
• 35% of voters overall think the country “will suffer for four years then change direction” if their candidate loses.
• 37% of Republicans, 33% of independents and 36% of Democrats agree.
• 5% of voters think the country will remain the same because “it doesn’t really matter who is president.”
• 3% of Republicans, 7% of independents and 6% of Democrats agree.
• 13% of voters are not sure what will happen if their candidate loses.
• 12% of Republicans, 13% of independents and 14% of Democrats agree.
SOURCE: A Yahoo News survey of 1,073 registered U.S. voters conducted online Oct. 29-31.
• Contact Jennifer Harper at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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