Hey David, why is Andrew Yang surging in the polls?
This is a good question.
First we have to address the facts is Andrew Yang surging in the polls as of this recording,
Andrew Yang has recently pulled three and four in a couple of polls.
Like for example, there's an Emerson poll where Andrew Yang has pulled for, there's
a Quinnipiac poll where Andrew Yang has pulled three.
There is a slightly older USA Today poll where Andrew Yang has pulled three and he's averaging
about 2.5% so at one point he was only pulling 1%.
In that sense, Andrew Yang clearly has some momentum.
I think the better argument for talking about Yang's appeal is the accelerated donor base
that Andrew Yang has picked up while many other one and two percenters have not even
gotten enough donations to qualify for the third debate that's coming up next week.
Um, and uh, yes I think increased social media attention also can tell us about interest
in Andrew Yang if not electoral support.
Do I think Andrew Yang is rocketing up in the polls?
No.
I mean he's still averaging 2.5% and he's made the third debate stage.
That's great.
I've interviewed him.
I like him.
I'm glad to see him there.
I want to hear his ideas but there is not evidence at this point that there was going
to be a much more head room so to speak for Andrew Yang to take advantage of.
Although I'm sure people hearing me talk about this a will disagree.
The reason I believe Andrew Yang is getting attention is he is talking to people in a
relatable way.
He sounds far less like a politician, but not in a way that makes him sound like he's
delusional with ideas that are completely disconnected from the real world.
His ubi plan, you can agree with it or disagree with it, you can find areas of it that you
think are more or less feasible or more or less advantageous.
But it is a very specific policy that he has outlined now thousands of times as he has
been running this election.
And it is resonating with people even if they don't necessarily think that's the best way
to spend government money that he is putting out specific and actionable plans.
So I think it's a combination of personality, demeanor and the fact that he is at least
attempting to stick to policy and he has many policies out there that uh, many people are
liking.
Is every single one of them completely feasible?
No, that's the case with any presidential candidate.
Is Andrew Yang going to get enough speaking time at the debate such that he would even
have the opportunity to really be as prominently placed as Joe Biden, Warren or Bernie?
He's not.
And you can argue that's not fair.
I mean you can make the case that if there are 10 candidates in a debate, regardless
of polling, each should get 10% of the time, and I wouldn't completely disagree with you,
even though I understand why the networks do it the way they do it.
I, I don't disagree with the premise that if you really want the debates to be an adjudication
of all of the ideas that are out there, you really should be giving the candidates equal
time.
Although I get why they don't.
So I think that's what it is.
I think what Andrew Yang has done, I know that he's talking about this is not to now
go away in a month.
This is to become president of the United States.
I don't see how the numbers point to him doing that now in the same way that I didn't see
it with Tulsi and Tulsi has not even made the third debate and there are still people
saying she's going to be president.
I think at some point we have to be a little more realistic, but I think that Andrew Yang's
presidency has been good for the Democratic Party.
I think it's been good for elections in general.
And I'm interested in seeing how far he goes.