The Play: 2024 United States Presidential Contest
ACT 1, SCENE 1 – Before Joe Biden Dropped from the Contest
- A MAGA Republican: We’re well ahead in the polls; a landslide is possible.
- A Democrat: Joe Biden needs to drop out as he’s down in the polls.
ACT 1, SCENE 2: A Presidential Debate Between Trump and Biden
- A Democrat: The performance of Biden was bad, and he must leave the contest.
- A MAGA Republican: We’ve opened more gaps in the polls; all polls are widening. We’re winning.
ACT 2, SCENE 1: Biden Drops Out and Kamala Harris Picks the Spot
- A MAGA Republican: Polls are rigged, and they are rigging them to rig the election. There is no truth in these polls. Shame on fake big media.
- A Democrat: We were realistic on what the data was telling us; we like where we are now after the changes we made.
Lesson: As you run your business, do all necessary to respect data, and question it objectively. Here, the Democrats were honest to use that data to improve their odds, by making changes. You would expect the MAGA Nation to also use data to improve their playbooks. But when they do not have confidence in that data (unlike in the past), they deny themselves the opportunity to make changes.
Remember: the best poll is on the election day. May the best win.
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When the polls are not in your favour, the best thing you can do is not to discredit or attack them, because doing otherwise will put you in defensive mode. In politics, once you start defending, you are already losing. The only winning position in politics is attacking position, don’t ever play defensive, there’s no joy there.
If you have a secret weapon that will upend the polls on the election day, just keep quiet, but don’t ever attack or discredit the polls, whether they are real or fake. Your main task is in two forms: highlighting your strengths and the weaknesses of your opponent, everything else is not for you to talk about; there are those who will take care of those ones.