How Biden Did It

“The Economist’s less-than-ringing endorsement of the former Vice President—resignedly titled, ‘Why it has to be Biden’—typifies the sentiment.”

After four years of President Donald Trump and at least as many days of deliberation, it appears there will be a changing of the guard. President-elect Joe Biden has been projected the winner by national media outlets, a narrow victory that came down to razor-thin margins in a handful of states. The race was tighter than expected, with most professional pundits having predicted a victory for the former Vice President by a large margin. Instead, we got a drawn-out showdown—the most expensive election in history and one likely historic in terms of turnout.

Pandemic conditions made for a fraught tallying experience. With record amounts of early voting and many states having widely adopted vote-by-mail for the first time, election workers appeared somewhat overwhelmed, exacerbating extant fears of fraud, intimidation, and other forms of electoral interference that had loomed in the run-up to Election Day.

As of yet, President Trump has not conceded the election. On the contrary, his campaign is promising litigation in the coming weeks. Nevertheless, under the presumption that President-elect Biden’s victory will not be successfully overturned in court, here are a few initial takeaways from the recent election.

Why Biden Won

One reason might be exhaustion with President Trump’s antics and the reactions they have inspired. The last four years have been crazy-making for many people. Some—maybe even most—of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of the media and other increasingly politicized institutions, which have seen fit to go full bore in their efforts to remove President Trump from office. But the President has been no help to himself in this regard either, having done nothing to deprive his detractors of ammunition—something of a low bar given that so much of the case against him took the form of stylistic and rhetorical criticism.