Re: National polls
I totally ignored the national polls as they are irrelevant to the US presidency. IIRC polls by state for the last month of the election were reasonably consistent - and compared to the election results were a a few percent wrong showing more support for Hillary than she actually had. There were poll results showing Trump would win. Much to my shame I ignored them because they were on sites focusing on Emails, Benghazi and saying Hillary was Satan. Scott Adams said a bunch of things about how voters feel that I dismissed as being insane but turned out to be correct. A great deal of news is slanted to fit the preconceptions of the audience. At the time I had no idea how well this is done. Clearly me and Scott were in thoroughly isolated bubbles.
Although I have great respect for the statisticians organising polls the staff actually conducting the polls that have contacted me showed a clear preference for how they thought I should answer. If the Democrats hired like-minded pollsters it could have skewed the results because some Trump supporters would not have admitted their support. The poll results clearly showed Hillary could aim for a landslide.
Lots of people make up their minds long before the election. Plenty of the undecideds only show an interest in the election a few days in advance when election news is unavoidable. By that time it was Emails, Emails, more Emails and also Emails. Little things like the Trump University scam, barging into the girls changing rooms, bribing a district attorney, multiple bankruptcies, up to his ears in debt to Putin, building a wall to protect one of his golf courses from rising sea levels and so on were all old news. If you spent a little effort looking you could find a hundred disasters for the Trump campaign with no focus on any particular ten but without that effort: Emails, Emails, ... Lock her up.
I tried looking for the wall today. First glance: Trump has built nearly 100 miles of wall and is about to build 400 more. Second look: Trump has repaired 80 miles of wall, built 16 new miles (some of which fell down), taken credit for a bit built by Obama and is unlikely to get funding for more (and would need to use eminent domain to get the land to build it on). There is actually a possibility of Mexico paying for a few feet of wall. The cost is oil production. To reduce the glut all oil production has to be cut back. Trump has promised that the US will cut back by more than its fair share so Mexico does not have to.The news is there if you look for it. If you don't, you will get Trump's foot in mouth issue of the week until a few days before the election when Trump will focus on some made up bullshit like "Biden was born in Botswana" - only more insane - and that will be the news until the election is over.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
