Starting today, Election Day Eve, the Doctor Pundit blog will take its own corner of the internet and put its own spin on the next 75 days until Jan. 20, 2021. The period between the all-important post-election day, proper, and the day a chief executive is sworn is one the most storied in presidential politics (probably running a close second to POTUS’s First 100 Days), and I’ll follow it in my own special way.

The section will have its own temporary page within Doctor Pundit called Transition 2021. So, join me, as this blog will do its best to follow the shenanigans and triumphs during this most critical time in our nation’s history.

What better way to kick off this project than with the latest Election Day Eve polling:

Monmouth - PENNSYLVANIA: Biden 51%, Trump 44%

Morning Consult -

ARIZONA: Biden 48%, Trump 46%
FLORIDA: Biden 52%, Trump 45%
GEORGIA: Biden 49%, Trump 46%
MICHIGAN: Biden 52%, Trump 45%
NORTH CAROLINA: Biden 49%, Trump 48%
OHIO: Trump 49%, Biden 47%
PENNSYLVANIA: Biden 52%, Trump 43%
TEXAS: Biden 48%, Trump 48%
WISCONSIN: Biden 54%, Trump 41%

NYT:

Joseph R. Biden Jr. holds a clear advantage over President Trump across four of the most important presidential swing states, a new poll shows, bolstered by the support of voters who did not participate in the 2016 election and who now appear to be turning out in large numbers to cast their ballots, mainly for the Democrat.

Mr. Biden, the former vice president, is ahead of Mr. Trump in the Northern battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as in the Sun Belt states of Florida and Arizona, according to a poll of likely voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena College.

POTUS’s final message to Americans.

Trump thought wearing masks made him and others around him look weak and afraid, says a White House aide. He routinely scowled when he saw aides wearing masks, and for months during the pandemic would say he couldn’t hear or understand officials speaking to him with masks on, according to two current and one former aide.

By mid-summer, when Americans had lived circumscribed, fearful lives for months, even some voters who had supported Trump in 2016 were souring on his leadership during this national emergency. “It’s a ‘don’t care’ attitude,” a teacher’s assistant in Ft. Lauderdale, FL said on a focus group … in July, which TIME observed. “This is a time in crisis. You’re supposed to be with us. And I can’t see it.”

In September, the White House’s careless approach to safety during the pandemic caught up with it. In a matter of weeks, more than 30 people in Trump’s orbit came down with COVID-19, including senior counselor Hope Hicks, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, First Lady Melania Trump and the President.

Yes, I know this is another national poll, but the size of the national popular vote win is correlated to the likelihood of an electoral vote win. Large leads like 8% make an electoral college win for POTUS unlikely — especially this close to election day.

Oh. Now this makes perfect sense. Even the local GOP here in MN will stop at nothing to get their own elected.

Four months before Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Adam Weeks died in September, sending the pivotal Second Congressional District race into a legal tailspin, he told a close friend that he had been recruited by Republicans to draw votes away from Democrat.

In a May 20 voicemail message provided to the Star Tribune, Weeks told a longtime friend that Republicans in the Second District approached him two weeks before the filing deadline to run for Congress in the hopes he’d ‘pull votes away’ from incumbent DFL Rep. Angie Craig and give an advantage to the ‘other guy’; Tyler Kistner, the Republican-endorsed candidate.

Earlier this year, Weeks was struggling financially as the pandemic took a hit on his organic farming business, which he started with his mom. In the voicemail message, he said he didn’t have any funding to run a campaign but said Republicans were offering him $15,000. It wasn’t a lot, Weeks acknowledged, ‘but it’s enough to make door knocks with.’

Yeah … the other guy. Disgusting.

The lions share of coverage of the impact of COVID on our culture has disproportionately centered on retail, services, and goods — and how workers in those sectors have had to adjust. What about the teachers?

This month, Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union, released results of a survey showing 81% being “stressed” over hybrid instruction and 28% “thinking about quitting or retiring,” as a result. The survey drew responses from about one-in-five union members, meaning it could’ve been skewed by those most passionate about the changes.

We all know POTUS is a bully who has always made his intentions known, because he never has had to deal with consequences. Those finding comfort in adopting the win-by-a-landslide strategy to enforce a clear mandate to pave the way for Democrats to pull the nation out its morass will celebrate a Biden victory on this level.

Though POTUS may be a lame duck after the dust settles next week, he’ll likely be one in name only. That is a serious concern.

Joe Biden’s arrival in the Oval Office won’t alter one mega-fact: Donald Trump will hand him a monstrous economic mess. Worse, in the almost three months between November 3 and January 20, rest assured that he will dedicate himself to making it even bigger. …

The motivation? Sheer spite for having been put in the position—we know that he will never accept any responsibility for his defeat—of facing what, for him, may be more unbearable than death itself: losing.

The gargantuan challenge of putting the economy back on the rails while also battling the pandemic would be hard enough for any new president without the lame-duck commander in chief and Senate Republicans sabotaging his efforts before he even begins. The long stretch between Election Day and Inauguration Day will provide Donald Trump ample time to take his revenge on a people who will have forsaken, in his opinion, the best president ever.