By Eyobong Ita

I told you the U.S. presidential elections are not over, folks. With 51 days to go, it’s a thriller in Yankee land. Just when it appeared Hillary Clinton had floored Trump, he roared back like Smoking Joe Frazier, bobbing, weaving and hitting Clinton pretty hard. As of Thursday, Trump had overtaken Hillary in three key battleground states – Ohio, Florida and Nevada.

Trump and Hillary

Hillary still leads in Virginia, Michigan and Colorado. Overall, two major polls have Hillary leading Trump by five (Quinnipiac) and two points (CBS/New York Times), respectively. But remember, the state by state polls are more critical than national polls because the states control the Electoral College votes, which ultimately decide who wins the U.S. presidential elections.

Back in 2000, then Vice President Al Gore had more than half a million total votes than then Texas Gov. George W. Bush, but Bush won more electoral college votes and became president.

Also, as recently as the 2012 Presidential Elections, major national polls had GOP nominee Mitt Romney leading incumbent president Barack Obama even on Election day, but Obama roundly routed Romney and easily won a second term because he focused more on the battleground states.

So much happens daily with this election that the only constant thing is   change and it is happening daily, including the polls, so don’t be surprised if you have new numbers by the time you read this piece.

The Obama Factor

Forget the polls, disregard the issues, ignore every conventional wisdom out there, this U.S. presidential election will likely be decided by three key factors: minority voters, swing voters and die-hard supporters of incumbent President Barack Obama a.k.a. the Obama factor.

One, Trump has more die-hard supporters than Clinton, but without minority and swing voters, Trump cannot win only with his supporters, especially since many key GOP leaders say they will not vote for him. On the other hand, because there are officially more Democrats than Republicans, if about 80 to 90 percent of Democrats vote, Hillary wins, especially since most minorities traditionally vote Democrats, and swing voters split their votes.

Here comes Obama with 58 percent approval rating – higher than any American president in recent memory at this time of his second term. Also, official statistics released this week show that median income for Americans are higher today than last year. Additionally, Obama as campaigner-in-chief makes a more compelling case for Hillary than even Hillary herself.

Obama remains the most popular and scandal-free American president since Ronald Reagan. Most importantly, Obama’s fan-base is as solid as Mt. Zion and arguably there are thousands of voters who are not particularly fond of Clinton, but will likely vote for Hillary only because Obama enthusiastically endorses her.

Instant-Runoff on Maine Ballot

Maine voters are being asked to support or reject Ranked-choice voting on the November ballot. Ranked what? Folks, I’ll spare you the political jargons. Maine’s Ranked-choice voting is otherwise known as “instant-runoff voting” that would be used to elect the state’s U.S. senators, House of Reps members, the state governor, state senators and state representatives.

The way it works, rather than just vote for one candidate, each voter would rank all the candidates according to his/her choice. For instance, the voter places a “1” beside his or her first choice candidate, a “2” beside the second choice, a “3” beside the third choice and so on.

Now, if no candidate receives an overall majority of first choice votes, the candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated one by one and their votes are transferred to their second and third choices, and so on, and all votes are recounted afresh until one candidate wins a majority. Should voters approve this ballot issue, ranked-choice voting will not be effective until January 1, 2018. And Maine would likely become the first state to use this method of voting for statewide elections.

The Insanity of this Campaign

Folks, after more than two decades monitoring and covering elections in the U.S., including Obama’s historic win and inauguration, I can’t help shaking my head at what’s going on now. I’ve never seen an election as abnormal as this. I mean, never has there been a candidate like Donald Trump.

The GOP billionaire business mogul has millions of supporters who obviously are ready to sink or swim with him no matter what he says or does, even when many of his top party leaders publicly denounce him as 419 (ok, they actually used the words fraud, con-man, phony, etc). To his supporters, Trump can do no wrong, and Trump capitalizes on that.

Remember, Trump actually said he can stand in the middle of 5th Avenue (one of New York city’s busiest hubs) and shoot someone and wouldn’t lose a vote (and you better believe him).

Trump is such a great orator that he can convince even die-hard conservatives to accept any liberal policy he proposes, or at least to remain silent about it. And Trump is such a dream candidate for reporters that all a journalist has to do is to have a microphone or a tape recorder in front of him and he starts talking and the next story is done. Meanwhile, Hillary avoids the press as much as possible.

To cap it all, from all indications, the media apply double standards in scrutinizing both candidates, with Trump more fairly treated than Hillary. Many journalists for the most part treat Trump as a reality TV entertainer that he used to be, rather than treating him as a U.S. presidential candidate, so he gets away with so much more than presidential candidates ever did.

For instance, Trump has consistently said he will not release his Tax Returns because he is being audited by the IRS, but the media do not demand proof of that audit from Trump, do not insist that the IRS says he can release them even if he is being audited, and do not demand he releases his tax returns for those years not included in his years he claims to be under audit.

Meanwhile, Hillary has released 40 years of her tax returns with Trump releasing none. Can you imagine if the reverse was the case? Also, the FBI took the unprecedented step to release notes from a confidential interview with Hillary.

Trump said his wife will hold a press conference to address whether she came into the U.S. as an illegal immigrant but she never did, that he will release his full medical records only to release a one-page report from a recent physical on a TV show on Thursday. A Newsweek investigative story exposes Trump’s global business ties with several foreign government entities, including criminals.

Trump has not denied that, but the media are not up in arms. Trump has not denied a report that he used money from the Trump Foundation (other people’s donations) to buy himself a 6-foot high painting of himself.

And Trump has not been held accountable for many of the inflammatory and false statements he makes about groups, people and issues, such as saying the father of his former rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, had a hand in the assassination of President John Kennedy, that Obama was not born in America and therefore an illegitimate president, among others.

Can you imagine if Hillary had said or done any of those things?

Recently, the media went wild when it was revealed that some dignitaries who got access to then Secretary of State Clinton had donated to the Clinton Foundation; when Hillary called half of Trump’s supporters deplorables; they consistently scrutinize Hillary’s email scandal; and when she got sick they demanded that she releases a more detailed medical record.

Double standard, folks.