Mediaboss Marketing

President Biden may be down in the polls, but hes way up on Donald Trump when it comes to campaign funds.

Each quarter since the president announced he was running again, Biden has lapped his predecessor in cash. The Biden campaign and its political committees held $192 million at the end of March, more than double the $93 million that Trump, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts reported. Biden will also benefit from more than $1 billion pledged by independent groups that back his re-election. Trump allies have so far announced only a pittance of the outside money Biden has accrued.

What can a campaign do with this sort of advantage? In todays newsletter, Ill explain how a deluge of cash might matter and why it might not.

There are two main things a political campaign buys: advertising and efforts to get out the vote.

TV and digital ads are by far the biggest expenditures for a national campaign, with staff-heavy field operations the next biggest. The Biden campaign plans to raise $2 billion by November. On screens and airwaves, it will hammer its anti-Trump message in battleground states. While thats happening, it will send campaign workers to find voters in those states, figure out which ones need prodding to return their ballots or drag others to their local precinct.

Campaigns spend their money on these things because they often work. You win this election going out and talking to voters, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul who is a co-chair of the Biden campaign, told me. Thats what our financial advantage allows us to do. One example is abortion policy: The Biden campaign is spending millions to remind voters about Trumps role in the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Its worth remembering that presidential campaign ads are not like commercials for insurance. They are aimed at people who dont follow politics closely and may not have strong opinions about Biden and Trump. Thats a relatively small population, but its large enough to decide any of the eight battleground states.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

See the original post:
Why Biden Raising More Money Than Trump for the 2024 Election Matters - The New York Times

Its no secret that many voters are not looking forward to the election in November.

A New York Times/Siena College poll from February found that 19 percent of voters held an unfavorable view of both President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. And 29 percent of Americans believe that neither candidate would be a good president, according to a March poll from Gallup.

At the same time, the prospect of a new president is exciting for many, and nearly half of Republican primary voters are enthusiastic with Mr. Trump as their nominee, the Times/Siena poll found. About a quarter of Democratic primary voters said the same about Mr. Biden.

Those findings are broad measures of an issue Americans have complex feelings on. To dig a little deeper, we asked respondents in that Times/Siena poll to summarize their feelings about the upcoming rematch in just one word.

We received hundreds of distinct responses from a representative sample of more than 900 registered voters across the country. We combined responses like anxious, apprehensive, concerned and worried into a category we labeled scared; responses under the umbrella of excited and hopeful became happy. Disappointed, annoyed and frustrated were classified as angry.

About a third of voters gave responses indicating anger, disappointment or resignation. And nearly as many respondents 30 percent replied with words indicating that they were scared or apprehensive.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Read the original post:
How Voters Describe the 2024 Election in One Word - The New York Times

In the newest Impromptu podcast from Post Opinions, three columnists talked about how they are processing the unusually long general-election campaign of 2024, a rematch between a sitting president and a former president that feels absurd, high stakes and serious.

Use the audio player or The Posts Impromptu podcast feed to listen to the entire conversation.

Spotify

Apple

Google

Amazon

Perry Bacon Jr.: I do not enjoy covering this era of politics. But the audiences and the voters seem to be more engaged in it than, say, 2004 when I might have enjoyed covering it more. So its a complicated story.

Amanda Ripley: One poll shows that more than half of Americans feel dread, exhaustion and depression as they look toward it. And I can relate. And I wonder, can you? How are you both feeling as journalists and humans and Americans about the 2024 election?

Bacon: Im dreading it. I used to be someone who was very excited about going to Iowa. I think its really about [Donald] Trump. Trump creates this sense of crisis for a lot of people.

Ive gotten to a more extreme point now. When my wife and I are going to have dinner with another couple, I will usually email the man because he usually wants to do it and say, Hey, I try to avoid talking about politics during nonwork time.

Ripley: Wait. Can I just make sure I understand? You kind of want to set the stage, because people are going to naturally talk to you about politics, right? Just like were torturing you right now.

Bacon: Im getting paid for this, to be clear. Thats an important distinction!

When Im at the park with my daughter, I will really try to say, Well spend two minutes on this. And I will set a timer occasionally.

Jim Geraghty: Previously in our politics, the past generation or so, if somebody comes along whom you cant stand Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama they go away in eight years. They do not come back. Most of our former presidents are very quiet. Trump has not been that.

Ripley: Its particularly damaging for young Americans because all they know is this kind of politics, right? This kind of us versus them, burn down the house politics.

Politics are supposed to make us feel like we have some small amount of power over our destiny.

Bacon: The other thing I struggle with a lot is: What is the nature of this conflict? There were high conflicts in the 1860s and the 1960s, and I wouldnt be here on this podcast if people were not willing to engage in those conflicts. #MeToo was a high conflict moment. Im glad that happened. The 2020 protests were high conflict. Im glad those happened. The debate over how we teach race and education in Southern states is actually about something. They are trying to ban ideas that I think are important to understanding where we are in terms of race.

People are deeply concerned. They feel like the America they want is going away from them. And I dont want to minimize that conflict.

Listen to the full conversation here:

Spotify

Apple

Google

Amazon

More here:
Opinion | Impromptu podcast: Columnists on presidential campaign 2024 - The Washington Post - The Washington Post

So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. Youd better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly cant rearrange the universe.

Total solar eclipses over the heartland of America are rare. But they are totally normal celestial events.

Donald Trump isnt rare these days; unfortunately, we see him every day. But his actions are increasingly abnormal. Theyre getting that way because next week hes potentially facing the first of four criminal trials which could lead to prison time for Trump. Three times a judge has denied him a motion that would delay his trial.

While philosophers may opine about the recent solar eclipse with far more erudition than I, let me simply say that its doubtful we took the hint. I know Trump didnt. He has no ability to express humility.

With the efficiency and simplicity of someone flicking on and off a light switch, I witnessed from the birthplace of John Mellencamp (Seymour, Indiana if you cant look it up) what millions across the country saw: The sun was turned off and then on, plunging us into total darkness and then back into the bright light of day three minutes later.

It was an awesome display of celestial mechanics, but pales in comparison to the mechanics of the justice system holding Donald Trump accountable for his disruptive, divisive and illegal activities. Much as the ancient viewers of total solar eclipses once were, Trump today is in the pit of despair and hes melting down.

His emails to followers are pointed and accusatory. He complains Biden will fundraise off of his courtroom drama while Trump campaigns and fundraises off his courtroom drama. None of these BIDEN TRIALS should be allowed to take place during my campaign.Theyre all rigged and political, Trump wrote in one recent dispatch.

Its everyone elses fault. The fix is in. As much as the celestial mechanics of a total eclipse are commonly known, so are the reactions of Donald Trump when someone tries to hold him accountable for something hes done.

The total eclipse of the sun should bring about a bit of humility. The Universe doesnt care about our petty squabbles. It certainly doesnt care about Trump as much as he would like to think hes the center of the Universe. His hubris and arrogance arent rare in a society that ignores science and puts people ahead of property and competition ahead of cooperation. Thats probably Trumps mantra.

This week the demonic angel of despair and divisiveness remains as angry and as scared as Ive ever seen him. I doubt theres a safe ketchup bottle within 100 miles of Mar-a-Lago. Trump is scared out of his befouled shorts. His former CFO Allen Weisselberg got sentenced to five months in jail after committing perjury in the former presidents civil fraud case. Think hell talk? I dont know but, according to those in Trumps orbit, the Donald is worried. After his third attempt to delay his trial in Manhattan was denied, theres no doubt Trump has slipped a cog.

But, lets be honest, Donny Darko isnt the only one.

This week a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign official was exposed for promoting false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. At the same time, Rita Palma, a New York activist working for Kennedy boasted that his candidacy is a way to block President Biden from being re-elected.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, meanwhile, still wants to dump Michael Johnson, the Republican House speaker, because he wont anoint her queen and offer subservience to her lunacy.

And finally in todays Top Ten list, Weird things wed like to blame on the eclipse but cant sponsored by David Letterman, the New York Times came out with a blistering analysis of Donald Trump that claims he grossly distorts his opponents records and exaggerates and twists the fact, often turns his criminal cases into rallying cries, makes up unverifiable claims, continues to scream about the rigged election and describes the United States as a Nation in Ruins.

Thats news? It sounds like every day I spent covering Trump during his presidency.

As much as evangelical Christians, astrologists, numerologists, Big Foot hunters, those who believe in spirits, fairies, conspiracy theorists, and alien hybrids would love to give credit to the eclipse for what they see as signs of societys apocalypse, the fact is were back to blaming ourselves or at least Donald Trump for this nonsense. Im waiting for some MAGA member of our technologically medieval society to burn their own village as a show of support or frustration you know, much like University of Kentucky basketball fans do whenever their team loses a coach or wins or loses an important ball game.

The facts show that all of this creepy news is due to the fact that Donald Trump has been normalized by too many members of the press. Its as if were shocked and what has been going on with Trump for the last decade is new to us.

Jim Acosta mentioned Tuesday on CNN that he was stunned that Trump faces no backlash for accusing Biden of using cocaine before a recent speech and former and former Republican presidential candidate and CNN analyst Joe Walsh backed up Acosta, saying it is part of the normalization of Trump by the pressThe New York Times offering insights into Trump that arent actually anything new underscores how weve simply and collectively forgotten that Donald Trump is a slithering slimeball.

He denounced a near-total ban on abortion in Arizona while proudly claiming responsibility for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade which enabled the state action in Arizona. Hes selling $60 Bibles while being unable to recite a single verse in it.

We in the media continue to treat him as a legitimate candidate while half of the electorate agrees. Every time Donald Trump goes after a judge, a jury, witnesses or his charges, we cover it but curiously we never mention Judge Aileen Cannon. Trump never goes after the judge in the Mar-a-Lago documents case against him. Thats because shes a MAGA sycophant, a prosecutor close to the case explained. Maybe thats worth reporting a little more often.

Perhaps we should be covering Trump based on the facts and not the blathering, bloviated nonsense he spouts on a daily basis. I dont care about the wild and dramatic ramblings of the demented former president. The fact is Trump has more reasons to fear the coming months than Middle Age peasants feared a solar eclipse. The eclipse, while humbling, isnt a threat to our existence. Next week Trump will face a case in court that is a threat to his existence even though its considered the weakest case against him.

The truth is much different.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

While he faces charges related to insurrection, election denial, and classified documents that sound extremely frightening, and are, there is no doubt about the facts in the Manhattan district attorneys case against Trump. They are solid. Rock solid.

I worked with Michael Cohen for many months on Revenge, his latest book that deals with the facts that have led to the charges against Trump in New York. Trump paid off Stormy Daniels for her silence. He didnt want people knowing hed been having fun with her. He used Cohen to pay her and he did it to hide that fact from potential voters. While you can pay off anyone you want, it was hiding the payoff that really hurts Donald. In the state of New York its a misdemeanor. But it became a felony when it became tied to a federal election.

Having researched this for months, its obvious what was done and why. And right now, Trump will do anything to keep from facing those charges because he knows exactly what he did. If youve ever seen My Cousin Vinny you also know that through discovery Trump has all the factual information that will be presented against him.

On background, one of the people close to the prosecution maintains that Trump is toast.

His only hope is to find one juror who loves him and will see it his way. In Manhattan, thats not a likelihood. So, the next few weeks Donald will remain extremely tense, cornered and frightened. And we all know the danger of cornering a New York sewer rat.

Defense? my source said on background, Its in de-backyard. He has no defense and he knows it.

Other than hoping for a sympathetic juror, Trumps best effort in court will be in trying to discredit Michael Cohen who made the payoff for him. Trump has already tried to do that as often as the sun rises, and has been successful fewer times than Ive personally witnessed a total solar eclipse.

The reason why he has been unsuccessful is because of the paper trail that Trump can neither deny nor explain away.

Donald Trump is, for the first time, facing something he cant wish away or pay off.

In the Science Fiction Novella Nightfall, Isaac Asimov postulates how a civilization would face a solar eclipse in a multiple star solar system that only experienced night once every two thousand years.

It's one thing to predict [the complete breakdown of civilization]. It's something else again to be right in the middle of it. It's a very humbling thing, a character in the novel noted.

The recent total solar eclipse didnt lead to a breakdown of civilization and we arent in the middle of one.

But Donald Trump is and the Manhattan case against him will be the first of four blows from which he will likely not recover. It should be a very humbling thing.

Read more

about this topic

Continue reading here:
A total eclipse of Donald Trump: First felony trial could finally humble him - Salon

When former President Donald Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination last month, his win was taken by many as both a hard-fought campaign victory and the conclusion of a long-standing inevitability. Although much of today's GOP exists as a de facto extension of the MAGA movement, Trump's dominating primary performance cannot be attributed to his personal sway over the conservative zeitgeist alone. For months the former president and his campaign team have worked behind the scenes to ensure the mechanics of this election cycle work in his favor. Some of these maneuvers have taken place publicly, such as Trump's installment of loyalists to run the Republican National Committee. Other instances have been less dramatic but equally impactful, as Trump alters both the spirit of the American electoral system and its operational structure as well.

In the past, Trump's political agenda had been "frequently stymied by infighting and incompetence" thanks, in part, to having "populated his campaigns with huge egos," Vanity Fair said. The 2024 contrast is stark, with a drama-free campaign best represented by senior advisor Chris LaCivita and his "Talmudic understanding of primary rules." LaCivita has spent much of the past year pushing for "state Republican parties to change their processes to favor Trump." Perhaps nowhere was that effort more impactful than in California, where the campaign orchestrated a change to the primary rules so that a "candidate who wins more than 50% of the statewide vote on March 5" receives the state's entire delegate count, rather than a proportional amount, Politico said. Ultimately, the maneuver was a potential "death knell for Trump's competition" like Ron DeSantis, who had been planning his California campaign to pick off delegates from the total batch under the old rules.

Recently Trump and his allies attempted a similar operation in Nebraska, which metes out electoral college votes based on district wins, rather than the winner-take-all system used by the vast majority of the country. In many past elections, "Republicans take two and Democrats take one of the state's votes, though the third is tightly contested," The Hill explained. After Republican Gov. Jim Pillen endorsed a bill to change his state's electoral college process, Trump publicly threw his support behind the measure, calling it "right for Nebraska" while urging supporters to lobby on its behalf.

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

"When you realize you can't win with the current rules, you go back to the drawing board to change the rules so you can win?" Democrat State Sen. Jen Day of Nebraska asked during last week's debate. The measure was ultimately defeated, but by lending his weight to the issue, Trump and his allies "underscore[d] just how narrow the race for 270 electoral votes could be in November," CNN said.

While the average American voter likely doesn't follow the picayune ins and outs of every state's primary voting rules, the Trump campaign has not been shy about manipulating the system in its favor. After several states "adoptedTrump-friendly rulesin 2020 to ward off competition for the then-president," in 2023 the former president's team began actively "advocating for modifications in half a dozen additional states," Reuters said, highlighting the "scale of the effort." For much of the 12 months prior to the 2024 primaries, Trump and his allies were "changing all these party rules, getting their people in place, changing the battlefield," one GOP strategist told Vanity Fair.

Trump is hardly alone in his effort to shape the existing political system to his liking. President Joe Biden's efforts with Democrats to change the primary schedule so South Carolina a state widely seen as being to his political advantage would vote first helped fend off a challenge from Minnesota Rep. Dean Philips. It also "helped set up an advantage for Trump" by cutting into then-chief rival Nikki Haley's base since "any registered voter can participate in either party's primary. But voters can only choose one primary," Politico said.

Working the electoral system to benefit incumbents may well be a bipartisan pursuit. For someone like Trump, who has built his political capital on claims of being the victim of a "rigged election," however, it might be the deciding factor in a path back to power.

To continue reading this article...

Create a free account

Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.

Already have an account? Sign in

Subscribe to The Week

Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.

Cancel or pause at any time.

Already a subscriber to The Week?

Unlimited website access is included with Digital and Print + Digital subscriptions. Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.

See more here:
Trump campaign changes election rules to try to win in 2024 - The Week