A couple of months ago an acquaintance asked me if I thought Joe Biden had a chance to win the presidency.
Easy question.
Sure, he has a chance I told him. I wasn’t then and didn’t later predict a Biden win, but anyone except the most ardent believers in Donald Trump must have known Biden had a chance.
The polls were predicting it, but then we were reminded that the polls can be wrong, especially when it comes to Trump.
I saw the same guy last week, and he asked if I was happy Biden won.
I’m not so much pleased that Biden won as I am that Trump lost, I told him.
To which he retorted that he is unconvinced that Trump really lost, referring to a bunch of claims being raised but not proved by Trump’s lawyers.
And he added he’s going to stop watching Fox News, once among Trump’s favorite news channels. He thinks he’ll opt for Newsmax, a conservative web site and television news channel that’s competing with Fox for right-wing news consumers.
That attitude is one of the things wrong with too many Americans these days. If you don’t like what one news outlet is reporting — or more likely the way the news is being interpreted by opinionated talking heads on television — change venues to one that’s more attuned to your way of thinking.
Or go to the internet and social media and find something, accurate or not, that can stoke your fears and anger.
As for the election, I am now predicting a Biden victory although it is not yet official.
I don’t expect Trump to ever concede, but his lawyers’ claims of fraud are being kicked out of court because there is no proof of their allegations. Plenty of speculation, to be sure, but no proof.
A growing number of Trump supporters know that, and some are calling for an end to the refusal of the current administration to cooperate with the next one.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday cited “outrageous conduct” by Trump lawyers.
"They allege fraud outside the courtroom, but when they go inside the courtroom, they don't plead fraud and they don’t argue fraud,” he said.
Christie added, “I have been a supporter of the President’s. I voted for him twice, but elections have consequences, and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn't happen.
“If you are unwilling to come forward and present the evidence, it must mean the evidence doesn't exist," he went on. “The country is what has to matter the most. As much as I'm a strong Republican and I love my party, it's the country that has to come first.”
In my opinion — and keep in mind this is an opinion piece, not a news story in the “fake” media — the country does not come first with President Trump.
Trump comes first with Trump. We all, including myself, put self-interest above a lot of things, but Trump carries it to a new level.
That, along with his personality and what I consider lack of a moral compass, is why I voted against him, not necessarily because of his policies and actions, many of which I agreed.
I have many friends and some close relatives and family members who voted for Trump for various reasons, and I’m okay with that. If I fell out with everyone who votes differently from me, I’d be pretty lonely.
I suspect the COVID pandemic is what more than anything else brought Trump down. I think he mishandled it from the beginning, lying about it repeatedly.
But I do give him credit for whatever the government did in expediting a vaccine in warp speed.
Ironically, the news of what appear to be multiple successful vaccines began breaking right after the election.
Trump has accused pharmaceutical companies of strategically delaying their announcements about a coronavirus vaccine because of his support for reducing medicine costs and in order to hurt his re-election efforts.
I don’t know whether that’s true, but if it is it sounds like something Trump would do if the shoe were on the other foot.
