Election Day is just over a week away and the Democrats are sweating more than a pig at a luau. It appears that the ghost of Hillary Clinton’s chances of occupying the Oval Office is haunting the left, who, despite the pro-Biden polls, are afraid of another Trump upset. 

The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that while former Vice President Joe Biden holds a lead over Trump in national polls, Democrats are still dealing with the specter of 2016. “Everybody is anxious,” said Paul Begala, the founder of the Democratic fundraising organization Priorities USA. “It is not just post-traumatic stress disorder. We have permanent traumatic stress disorder. We will never get over what happened in 2016.”

The Times report indicated that members of Team Biden are “obsessing over the ways that everything could go sideways in this unpredictable election.” It seems that they are deathly fearful of a repeat of Clinton’s unexpected defeat four years ago. 

From The Times:

“There is a legitimate case for jittery nerves. The national polling averages that show Biden with a double-digit lead obscure a narrower gap in the swing states essential to win a 270-vote Electoral College majority. A slight shift in voters’ mood in those places could mean the difference between a Biden blowout and Trump eking out another narrow victory even as he loses the popular vote — as he did to Clinton four years ago.”

In an effort to avoid Clinton’s fate, the Biden campaign is scrambling to get every single last vote that they can, especially among minorities. “A recent dip in Biden’s support among young Black and Latino voters, as reflected in a UCLA poll, moved Democratic operatives to reassess their work in places including Milwaukee, Detroit and Philadelphia,” the author wrote. 

Democrats seem to be particularly concerned about Florida, where Trump has closed the gap significantly.  “Florida keeps me up at night,” said Chuck Rocha, founder of Nuestro PAC, a pro-Biden group designed to garner Latino votes for Biden. He indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic might hamper his efforts. “They’ve got kids going to school in the living room, they are worried about keeping the lights on, while I am trying to talk to them about filling out an absentee ballot,” he explained. 

But it’s not just Latino voters that have the Democrats quaking in their boots. Karen Finney, who served as a senior advisor to Clinton in 2016, told The Times that one of the mistakes the campaign made was taking black voters for granted. What a shocker!

But here’s another tidbit that has required Democrats to start wearing adult diapers. 

From The Times:

“Even as the Biden campaign and allied groups are hyper-focused on mobilizing swing state Black voters, recent polling data from UCLA hasn’t calmed their nerves. It showed Trump making slight inroads with Black voters younger than 45, with 21% signaling support for the president, double his share in 2016.”

Yet another element in this equation of mail-in voting, which the party has championed, but could have the opposite intended effect. The Times pointed out that “mail-in ballots have a higher chance of disqualification due to voter error.” 

However, some on the left are still expressing optimism for a Biden win. Cornell Belcher, who was a pollster for Barack Obama’s campaigns, indicated that “the fundamentals for Joe Biden are sound.” He pointed to the fact that 7 million voters who stayed home in 2016 have already cast their votes early. Minorities who showed up for Obama, but not for Clinton have signaled that they would cast their votes for the former vice president. Moreover, Biden is currently polling stronger with white voters than Obama. 

“We set up these false expectations,” Belcher told the Times. “When 10% of African Americans are voting Republican, it is like, ‘Oh, my God, the sky is falling.’ No, it isn’t. How about let’s try turning out as many of the 88% of Black voters supporting us as we possibly can?”

At this point, it’s still anyone’s guess as to who will win. While Trump is trailing in the polls, he is within striking distance in key battleground states, which means that this is anyone’s game. Despite what some say on both sides, there will be no landslide; This race will be close enough that it will be contested regardless of the winner. If this happens, the nation better prepare for a battle that might last until the end of December. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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