How does President Trump explain away his bad poll numbers? Pretty much the same way he deals with anything else negative: he insists they’re not real. What happened in 2016 makes it harder to push back at this than it might be; after all, nearly everyone thought Hillary Clinton was a lock, but it turned out she wasn’t. Still, according to #mapoli pollster extraordinaire Steve Koczela, this year’s presidential-polling model is a significant upgrade from its recent predecessor. He gives Peter Kadzis and Adam Reilly a layperson’s guide, and also offers some thoughts on what it’s like to be a military veteran watching the nation struggle to meet the challenge of COVID.

First, though, Kadzis and Reilly size up a broadcast dust-up featuring Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and At-Large City Councilor Michelle Wu, who’s widely considered a likely mayoral challenger.