No, Wisconsin Won’t Make Democrats Lose

Stuart Stevens: “I’ve worked in five Republican presidential contests including the 2004 reelection campaign of George W. Bush, the only Republican to win the popular vote in the past 32 years. Watching the Democratic convention, I felt like a football coach seeing a team focused on fundamentals. Politics will always be about addition and not subtraction. From John Kasich to Bernie Sanders, we saw old-fashioned coalition building. Republicans were like a team coached by a star player who was determined that every play depend on his ability to execute. It was vain, self-indulgent and ineffective.”

“We will soon be in the campaign stretch, when odds are good that the problems most troubling Americans will revolve around the economy and the disruption created by a failed covid-19 response. Kids who went away to college this month will likely be back at home when their campuses have reverted to all-remote learning. Schools that do open for in-class sessions will likely be closing or are soon to close, with parents watching their kids’ anxiety rise while their education suffers. There will be far fewer Friday night lights this fall, and family reunions at Thanksgiving and at holidays that follow look to be extra-complicated, both if you need to travel and then once you and yours finally get together.”

“The fabric of American life has been torn and the calming presence of a man who actually knows how to be president will be far more appealing than a red-faced screamer furious at what has happened on his watch.”