Politico:
‘We’ve lost our moral authority’: Kinzinger unwilling to back off Trump
The outspoken Republican is defining himself in a post-Trump GOP.
“We have two different directions to go as Republicans,” Kinzinger said in an interview. “And I’m on the direction of, let’s get back to our roots and explain what conservatism is, so we can actually win the generation we’re gonna need to stay relevant.”
Daily Mail:
How a graphic of Swiss cheese slices is helping stop the spread of Covid in countries with growing cases
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Brisbane virologist Ian Mackay created a simple diagram using Swiss cheese
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The graphic demonstrates how coronavirus can spread through holes
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It has a tiered system of attack with physical distancing and vaccines
Helen Branswell/STATNews:
The Covid-19 vaccines are a marvel of science. Here’s how we can make the best use of them
But if we’re not careful, we could fail to take full advantage of the opportunity scientists and governments, pharmaceutical companies and philanthropic foundations have created for us.
And there’s a possibility that the pandemic off-ramp doesn’t merge with a straight road back to Normalville, but instead becomes a meandering country lane with the occasional detour. We may need to choose the right turns and avoid the potholes as we make our way to our destination. It will require patience.
Peter Baker/NY Times:
Trump’s Final Days of Rage and Denial
The last act of the Trump presidency has taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House.
His rage and detached-from-reality refusal to concede defeat evoke images of a besieged overlord in some distant land defiantly clinging to power rather than going into exile or an erratic English monarch imposing his version of reality on his cowed court.
And while he will leave office in 46 days, the last few weeks may only foreshadow what he will be like after he departs. Mr. Trump will almost certainly try to shape the national conversation from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his relentless campaign to discredit the election could undercut his successor, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Although many Republicans would like to move on, he appears intent on forcing them to remain in thrall to his need for vindication and vilification even after his term expires.
I really don’t care what he does after he leaves, do you? He’s a loser and his charm will not prove sufficient to replace presidential power.
Natalie Jackson/USA Today:
Trump-Biden 2020: The polls were off, but they're not crystal balls and aren't meant to be.
All the information in the world is at our fingertips 24 hours a day, so we think election outcomes should be, too. But polling is not predictive.
Certainly, pollsters have work to do. But pollsters did not create the expectation that horse race polling will elucidate exactly what is to come on Election Day all by themselves. The media, polling aggregators, forecasters and consumers are all part of the problem, and all need to participate in the solution.
As I have watched and participated in the field in all four capacities over the last 15 years, the electoral polling industry has developed into an ecosystem: Pollsters want the media attention that comes with putting out reliable election estimates and getting picked up in aggregates and forecast models. Forecasters and polling aggregators (like RealClearPolitics.com and FiveThirtyEight.com) want polls to feed their models. The media wants polls, aggregates and forecasts to drive attention to their content. And as consumers, we think that since all the information in the world is at our fingertips 24 hours a day, future election outcomes should be, too.
NY Times:
Republicans Pushed to Restrict Voting. Millions of Americans Pushed Back.
Almost 160 million people voted this year, as new options made necessary by the pandemic removed many of the traditional barriers to casting ballots. Will it change the way America conducts elections?
It is the highest percentage since 1900, when the voting pool was much smaller, and easily surpasses two high-water marks of the modern era: the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy and the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Since the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote and roughly doubled the voting eligible population, turnout had never surpassed 64 percent.
The shifts that led to this year’s surge in voting, in particular the broad expansion of voting options and the prolonged period for casting ballots, could forever alter elections and political campaigns in America, providing a glimpse into the electoral future.