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Bridges: Guessing next president is like flipping a coin
Chris Bridges
Chris Bridges

With a little more than two months until election day, there are all types of political pundits who will be glad to tell you who is going to win the 2020 presidential election.

Typically, the prediction is based on which way the pundit leans politically. Despite what they try to convince you, political pundits have a bias toward particular candidates as well.

Turn on any of the cable news stations and you see the slanted coverage. One network favors most of what President Donald Trump does. Others have never given him credit for doing anything positive.

How can we possibly take what any of them say to be truthful?

Going back four years all signs indicated Hillary Clinton was going to be the next president. We all know how that turned out. 

One can still make a strong argument had the Democrats nominated anyone but Hillary then Donald Trump would not be in the Oval Office right now. Yet national Democrats were bound and determined to throw the primary and allow Hillary to win by hook or crook.

Now we find ourselves four years down the road. President Trump has certainly not been a conventional president. He does things that many conservative icons such as Ronald Reagan would have never done on his worst day.

In theory, President Trump probably should not win re-election. However, the Democrats have once again left the door open for him to win. The nomination of Joe Biden (once again come hell or high water) ranks among the least impressive accomplishments in national politics.

Biden, who failed multiple times to win the Democratic nomination, was seemingly on the ropes in this year’s primaries. However, national leaders within the party wanted him to be the nominee. The reason remains a mystery and it very well may backfire again.

There were as many as 30 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination at one time. There were so many in fact it would take someone with a photographic memory to remember all of them.

The field was diverse, however, with women and others who were young and could have brought energy to the ticket. Biden seems having trouble staying awake which is not surprising considering he is almost 80 years old.

For the life of me I don’t understand why Biden wants to be president at this point. He has been through family tragedy and one would understand if he never wanted to be in the national spotlight again. Even if he does happen to win in November, most don’t see him seeking a second term.

Trump has fooled many experts before, including some in his own party. Go back and watch some of the primary debates when he was a candidate in 2016. Candidate Trump simply would not go away, however.

Remember how some said he was going to drop out before the 2016 Iowa caucus? If he did make it that far in the campaign he would surely quit if he lost in Iowa, critics said.

Well, Trump did lose in Iowa but he did not quit. He kept going and started winning primaries across the country. It got to the point he couldn’t be stopped.

Of course, all the anti-Trump sentiment within the GOP has died down for the most part. There are still some critics but he is the flag carrier for the Republican Party in 2020.

President Trump still has very loyal supporters across the country who really don’t care what he does or says. They are going to vote for him regardless.

The Democrats have underestimated Trump before. It cost them the White House in 2016. Not learning from their mistakes, the Democrats may very well be poised to lose again.

If they do then maybe in 2024 Democratic Party insiders will quit trying to rig their own primary.

It’s why predicting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election is so tricky. The odds (as of this writing) say Biden will win but it would not shock me to see Trump once again emerge victorious. No one will laugh harder than President Trump if that does happen.

So, who is going to win in November? Flipping a coin is as good an indicator as any.


Chris Bridges is a former sports editor for The Covington News and The Walton Tribune. He can be reached at pchrisbridges@gmail.com.