A salesman is got to dream. Trump sells.

       "I've got to admit it's getting better (Better)     

       A little better all the time. (It can't get no worse)

       I have to admit it's getting better. (Better.)

       It's getting better."

                       Beatles, 1967

Things do not need to be good in America for people to vote to re-elect Trump. They just need to be getting better.

Morning in America is about the future.

There are two versions of America. One is grim. The virus never went away and numbers are climbing and America screwed this up. 

Democrats who look at polls might be feeling giddy. Trump is unpopular and he is losing to Biden in the polls by about 9 percentage points, 50% to 41%. That is a big enough spread to give Biden small leads even in the swing states with more non-college whites and seniors, making them more Trump-friendly than the nationwide average.

Moreover, Trump's Job Approval numbers are terrible: 42% approve, 56% disapprove, a 14 point negative spread.

As further confirmation, there is the Right Track/Wrong Track poll. By a three to one majority people say the country is on the wrong track: 24% to 68%.

Wrong Track: bad to worse

These are disastrous numbers for a president, but it actually gets worse for him. The public thinks Trump dropped the ball. His signature posture of downplaying the virus and eschewing masks is getting the blame for the rising deaths. Governors are forced to backtrack on re-opening. The public health people are  more bold and re-entering center stage, even within conservative media. Trump made masks a symbol of resistance to Democratic over-reach and fuddy-duddy tyranny. That message has been transformed into one of foolish, job-killing denial and intransigence. 

Trump even lost Vice President Pence, Fox and Friends, and Sean Hannity on this one: wear a mask, Mr. President, they say.

How does it get worse than that? Ideas are circling around like buzzards that maybe Trump will just up and quit? He can't win. He hates this job. He may just resign!

Forget that. Trump wants to win and there is no better place than the presidency to be the center of attention that he craves.

Americans are looking out and seeing improvement. Americans, in their role as consumers, were worried but are rapidly gaining confidence. Consumers feel it: things are getting better, not worse. The Conference Board just published their June report: 

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® increased in June, after virtually no change in May. The Index now stands at 98.1 (1985=100), up from 85.9 in May. The Present Situation Index – based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions – improved from 68.4 to 86.2. The Expectations Index – based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions – increased from 97.6 in May to 106.0 this month.

This is a tough time for restaurants, but it is a great time for furniture sales, hardware store sales, and car sales. Home Depot is packed. Walmart and Target, which have stayed open because of grocery departments, have been busier than normal. Amazon hit a new high in its stock price. So has Netflix and Tesla. There are winners during this transition and about a quarter of the stocks in the SP500 are up for the year.

CNBC this morning

CNBC news hosts shake their head in wonderment. Given the problems in the world, how can the stock market be doing so well? Don't investors understand how bad things are? Apparently not.

Meanwhile, I saw "help wanted" signs yesterday. The Harry and David pear and mail order gift place has a big sign up: "Hiring now. Bilingual Employment processors." A place that assembles roof trusses has a big sign out trying to hire workers because people are building things. The people growing cannabis here cannot find enough workers, and they pay $20/hour, and more than that when it comes the harvest crunch.

 I am 70 years old, but I can pass a drug test. I could find work if I wanted it.

Deus ex machina. Donald Trump draws snickers when Democrats circulate the video showing him saying the virus will just "magically disappear." Belief in magic solutions--good fairies or superheroes--isn't good government, but it reflects an understanding of how Americans understand technology. Embedded in Americans' sense of history is the idea that  scientists hidden away somewhere obscure like a Los Alamos, New Mexico, are coming up with a technological solution to an otherwise intractable problem. 

Click: If not this, something else.

My in-box is crowded with news of potential remedies and vaccines. Somewhere a medical researcher will find it, by hard work or good fortune, like the penicillin sitting there in Alexander Fleming's dish. Americans want to believe that a cure or vaccine is right around the corner. It has happened before and can happen again.

In October, 2020, when undecided and wavering and low-information voters are deciding whether or not Trump has brought morning to America, there will be some basis for him saying that the vaccine cure is upon us and that he was right all along,  We are primed to believe it and Trump knows how to sell it. 

Selling dreams and blue sky is what Trump does.  "A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory."