Last night Donald Trump made a speech in Philadelphia, at Temple University’s Liacouras Center.
The crowd was at near or full capacity – no surprise for a Trump event. The attendees were loud, raucous and, as you might assume, highly supportive.
Trump spoke for well over an hour. He did so with no pre-written notes and no teleprompter. He was entirely spontaneous. And the crowd loved every minute of it.
Let me remind you again that this was Philadelphia. A city that, in 2020 (assuming the vote was accurately counted) voted for Biden over Trump by 81.4% to 17.9%.
And let me advise you that, if you looked at the people cheering Trump on during his speech, you saw full diversity; loads of males and females, young and old, Black and White.
What does this mean?
-First, it is another demonstration that Donald Trump, whatever else you can say about him, is able to get in front of a huge number of people and just talk to them. Without notes, without rehearsed cutesy political slogans, without a teleprompter. A stark difference between him and Biden.
-Second, it is another demonstration that Trump supporters are highly enthusiastic. Try and find this kind of reaction at a Biden rally.
-Third, it is a demonstration that Trump does not have to hunker down for a week to rehearse his lines before the June 27th debate – in full contrast to Biden, who is now virtually incommunicado to the outside world preparing for it. That brings home with crystal clarity how non-problematic going into this debate is for Trump…and how difficult it is for Biden.
-Fourth – far and away most important – is that anyone who watched the speech saw that Trump was attracting people media have spent years telling us would never support him. Women, young people and minorities.
If you are a minority voter – especially a Black voter – who thinks Donald Trump has a better handle on what the country needs than Joe Biden, you might be intimidated into suppressing that opinion because you’ve been told relentlessly that minorities do not vote, and should not vote, for Republicans – especially Trump.
But if you see with your own eyes that there are minorities – no small number of them – loudly, excitedly cheering Trump on, as he makes the points that are relevant to you, it is a liberating moment. Suddenly there is no perception of being a fool or a dupe to say “I’m going to vote for Trump, and here’s why”. You can point out that other people just like you are saying the same thing. Ditto for minority (and young, and female) voters everywhere else.
Look, I have no illusions about which candidate is going to win Philadelphia County, PA in November. Biden will, in a landslide.
But if this, and other such events, turn that landslide from 81.4%-17.9% to, say, 71.4%-27.9%…
….Trump will still lose Philadelphia; but it is a near-100% certainty that Trump will win Pennsylvania. And, the last time I checked, electoral votes aren’t handed out city by city, they are handed out state by state.
The more Trump campaigns in places like Philadelphia, and New York City; the more bodegas and fast food locations he pops into, with video of excited, positively disposed people or all races, backgrounds and ages cheering him on in those places, the more this “liberated-to-vote-Trump” phenomenon will grow.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is tucked away, out of sight, for almost a week, just trying to rehearse for a debate so he won’t come across as…
…well, as someone who needs to be tucked away, out of sight, for almost a week, because he needs to rehearse for the debate.
I’ll give you one guess who that works for.
