… Our focus on polling and other horse-race aspects of campaigns contributes to our tendency to conflate elections with sporting events rather than a consideration of competing ideas. Irresponsibly equating campaigns with boxing matches or pennant races — where one participant comes “off the mat” or another “makes up ground” in the closing days — also bleeds into election night coverage. An example of the harmful effect of treating elections like sport is found in the question asked accusingly today by the president and his supporters based on early vote counts: “How could President Trump have been so far ahead in so many swing states but end up losing?” CONTINUED
Gary Abernathy, Washington Post