Oct 7, 2026 · 49 min · 15 segments
On today’s podcast, The Washington Monthly’s Bill Scher talks with Matt about: — Abdul El-Sayed told CNN he will win Michigan by 7 points, while recent public polls mostly show leads of 1–4…
Bill ScherGuest
Matt LewisHost
But first, what in the world is going on between El Sayed and CNN? What's the latest? Well, CNN just
did a big piece today, sort of an inside look at the El-Sayed campaign and some of the challenges that it's facing.
It has El-Sayed saying on record he predicts he's going to win by seven, which it's always startling to hear any candidate make a prediction like that.
And I found it a little strange because Maris has him up seven, and there was one other poll a little farther back had him up seven, but the last five are more one to two.
I've been keeping my own average, and the average over the last... three weeks of polling is 2.6.
I would still probably say, you know, this is still a lean Democratic race, but it's hardly in the bag.
But before we move on, Bill, I just want to linger for one second on him making this prediction that he's going to win by seven.
This is like defying conventional wisdom, which is you always want to under-promise, over-achieve.
And maybe you want Democrats to believe you're going to win, but that it's going to be very close, right? That would be the psychology.
And I think it has been evident this entire campaign that he operates with a lot of bravado on every level.
But first, what in the world is going on between El Sayed and CNN? What's the latest? Well, CNN just
did a big piece today, sort of an inside look at the El-Sayed campaign and some of the challenges that it's facing.
It has El-Sayed saying on record he predicts he's going to win by seven, which it's always startling to hear any candidate make a prediction like that.
And I found it a little strange because Maris has him up seven, and there was one other poll a little farther back had him up seven, but the last five are more one to two.
I've been keeping my own average, and the average over the last... three weeks of polling is 2.6.
I would still probably say, you know, this is still a lean Democratic race, but it's hardly in the bag.
But before we move on, Bill, I just want to linger for one second on him making this prediction that he's going to win by seven.
This is like defying conventional wisdom, which is you always want to under-promise, over-achieve.
And maybe you want Democrats to believe you're going to win, but that it's going to be very close, right? That would be the psychology.
And I think it has been evident this entire campaign that he operates with a lot of bravado on every level.
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