One of the articles of faith about the 2020 election among the MAGA crowd is that Joe Biden couldn't possibly have won the election because he "campaigned from his basement" and never spoke before the big crowds, as Donald Trump did. Biden didn't campaign from his basement, of course, but he did run a very non-traditional campaign because the whole country was under a modified lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Large indoor gatherings that did take place, such as the one Trump held in Tulsa during that summer, were super-spreader events that ended up with many people getting sick and some dying. That fall, Donald Trump himself showed up at a presidential debate knowingly infected. He soon ended up in the hospital and came close to dying himself.

Unlike Trump, Biden followed the advice of the scientists and found ways to campaign without unnecessary exposure to the virus. Despite all that, Trump and the right-wing media insisted that Biden must have cheated because he didn't barnstorm all over the country.

So what are we to make of the fact that in this campaign Trump can barely rouse himself to leave his cushy surroundings at Mar-a-Lago and is more likely to be found on the golf course than giving a speech or holding a rally?

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Sure, Trump does some campaigning, but at a much slower pace than he did in his first two runs. He's doing some non-traditional media, appearing on podcasts and giving interviews over the phone or at Mar-a-Lago. And he's appeared at some right-wing media confabs and made a foray to a plant in Pennsylvania last week. But the events are few and far between compared to the past. He even........

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