I Think We Have This “Presidential Immunity” Thing All Wrong

Or at least we are missing the opportunity to fix some things that are broken.

[[File:Supreme Court of the U.S. Building.jpg|Supreme Court of the U.S. Building]]

I’m relatively confident in America. Enough so that I don’t expect Trump to win in November. But the media and world around us want us to feel like it’s “going to be a nail-biter”. So until November, we are going to be inundated with polls, reports, and the like selling us on “how close the race is”.

Twenty years ago there were only a handful of polls that mattered, news organizations and a couple of universities. They worked to better predict the outcome so they could sell their “accuracy” over the other news sources.

“At ABC we have a 97% accuracy leading up to the election! — Trust us!”

But when FOX News weaponized information, the polls shifted from a quest for accuracy to some partisan talking point. It’s not difficult to push a poll one way or another. And in a tight race having people saying “your guy is going to win” helps sell the narrative.

And there is the reality that saying someone “is going to win” can hurt turnout. Why leave the house if your guy is getting killed anyway? I mean, you have Laverne and Shirley reruns to watch, does your vote really matter that much?