Share this page!

Angus Johnston Profile picture
Twitter logo
24 Oct, 4 tweets, 1 min read
I've seen several people in recent days saying that Biden is only leading Trump because of the pandemic, but the fact is, he lead the polling in the primary pretty much wire-to-wire, and has been leading Trump head-to-head since long before he was nominated.
I have my own theories as to why Biden was able to nab the nomination, and why he's doing so well now, despite him not being my preferred candidate, but any such theory should probably start by conceding that "my preferred candidate" and "a strong candidate" aren't synonyms.
Which isn't to handwave away Biden's weaknesses as a candidate. They're real, they're not small, and they're a big part of why he struggled in the early primaries. His victory there wasn't foreordained.
But his strengths are real, too.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Angus Johnston

Angus Johnston Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @studentactivism

Angus Johnston Profile picture
25 Oct
Biden high-up signs on to plan to limit SCOTUS justices to 18-year terms. Let's take a look at what that would mean in practice.
The bill provides for SCOTUS appointments in the first and third years of each term, and mandates that the most senior justice on the Court retire when such an appointment creates a 10-justice Court, but mandatory retirements don't apply to justices appointed prior to the Act.
So if Biden wins and Barrett is confirmed, Biden would get a new Justice in 2021, making the Court 6-4 GOP. He'd then get another in 2023, making the Court 6-5 GOP, but only if Breyer stayed alive and didn't retire.
Read 7 tweets
Angus Johnston Profile picture
24 Oct
Just stopped in to take a look at the early voting site at West Side High School on 101st and Amsterdam—at 3pm, five hours after the polls open, the line was well over half a mile long.
No line at all for absentee ballot drop-off, though, and the table and drop-off box are outside in the open air. So if you're in NYC and have an absentee ballot, voting that way should be quick, easy, and safe.
BTW, today is the first day of early voting here in New York, and a gorgeous, warm Saturday afternoon. I fully expect the lines to get a lot shorter over the coming week. (Also, far fewer early voting sites than there will be on Election Day.)
Read 8 tweets
Angus Johnston Profile picture
22 Oct
Ah, yes. This is beautiful.
Randi had such a tremendous sense of awe and wonder—it would have thrilled him beyond measure if the phenomena he spent his life debunking had turned out to be real.
I once had the chance—at the end of a long and lovely conversation—to ask a good friend of Randi's, who'd been a paranormal researcher before becoming a debunker, how she thought he'd respond if she brought him actual proof it was true.
Read 6 tweets
Angus Johnston Profile picture
14 Oct
I am glad to see an Actual Lawyer confirming that the First Amendment has six clauses, not the five that Sasse and Barrett cited, since that's the way I've been teaching it for decades.
From a half-remembered law journal article I read sometime in the last century: Each of the six clauses in the First Amendment builds on the one that precedes it, so that if you remove any of the six, the ones that follow it collapse.
Freedom of belief, free exercise, freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition. Swipe anything from that list, and everything after it is hollowed out and rendered meaningless.
Read 7 tweets
Angus Johnston Profile picture
14 Oct
I don't know much about much, but it's kind of looking like the Trump camp somehow got their hands on some raunchy sex-and-drugs photos and video of Biden's kid, then ginned up fake documentation and a bogus provenance to make it look like a corruption story.
The photos and video (one drug pic in today's paper, more apparently to come) are both to get people to look and to lend the other stuff a vague air of authenticity, but the whole thing doesn't actually seem to make any sense.
(I had the phrase "Biden's addict kid" in the first tweet in this thread, to indicate that there's no news in the photos, and to point out that they're trying to shame him for his addiction, but some folks thought the wording was too glib, so I rephrased.)
Read 4 tweets
Angus Johnston Profile picture
13 Oct
This polling really elegantly illustrates something I've been thinking a lot about the state of the race as it pertains to the electoral college. (Super quick thread to follow.)
The states and districts in blue on this map are those where Biden is leading by 7.5 points or more. The states in red are those where Trump is leading by 2 points or more (plus Iowa, which we'll get to in a second.) Now look at the brown states.
Every one of the brown states on the map is at least 11 electoral votes, and Biden is at 259 without any of them. That means that if Biden holds the blue states, a victory in ANY ONE of the brown states gives him the White House.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get email notifications when new thread is out from this Author!

Check out other threads from this Author!

Read all threads by @studentactivism