When it comes to the 2024 presidential race, the press is focusing on "odds and horse-race coverage" — while overlooking "the stakes of electoral outcomes," political scientist and contributing editor for The Atlantic Norm Ornstein told Salon in an interview published Wednesday.
Nevertheless, he said, when November rolls around, any lack of enthusiasm for President Joe Biden "will cede to the reality of the volatility of a second Trump presidency."
Ornstein says that 2024 will be a "persuasion election" rather than a "turnout election."
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"I think there are a lot of voters now genuinely torn between Biden and Trump," he said. "And I know that each man is wrestling with an unfitness problem — Trump, because he’s a criminal, traitorous psychopath, Biden because he’s too old. So, this election will come down to whose unacceptability is a greater concern to the voters."
He added that he thinks Democrats will have a good election in 2024 because he hasn't seen "the Democratic base this motivated for this long in my lifetime."
"Their string of [Democratic] victories dating back to 2017 is impressive," Ornstein said. "No reason to believe this will suddenly end in the biggest election of our lifetimes. I think Roe will be the absolute deciding issue. Just impossible to imagine that a majority of women will walk into a voting booth and pull the lever to have their rights taken away from them."
Read the full piece over at Salon.
