The NY Times described an enthusiasm gap for Biden in Iowa.
I was there, too, at the same events.
There was lots of enthusiasm.
Friday’s NY Times had a story by Katie Glueck with a headline that summarizes the conclusion of the story: "Joe Biden’s Poll Numbers Mask an Enthusiasm Challenge.” The story describes two Town Halls, spaced three hours apart in rural Iowa outside of Des Moines, that took place on Tuesday.
The Times has three photos accompanying the story, each showing a seated audience as part of the photo. In one of the photos there is a boy of about ten, in the foreground, lying on the ground facing away from Biden, playing with a small i-pad, unconcerned with the speech taking place behind him. Those give a stark impression of ho-hum. Here is the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/us/politics/joe-biden-trump-2020.html?module=inline
I saw it differently.
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| NY Times photo |
They could as easily have displayed photos of the times people stood up to applaud, which also happened, with sustained applause at the end, and a crush of people wanting to shake hands. It was 90 degrees in the shade, humid, the second gathering mostly in the sun, on a weekday at five p.m. It was sticky hot.
There were, in fact, a couple of cute, excited elementary school children there who got handshakes, which could as easily have been the photos illustrating genial Grandpa Joe pressing the flesh, but it was a 50 minute speech and the boy did the only sensible thing for a ten year old: find shade and play a video game. The photo choice, though, gives an impression.
The story quotes a few people saying they like Biden, that he is “OK.” What I observed was 300 people at each of two events, in venues out in the countryside, and about as excited as I have observed at any political event for a veteran politician.
My own big takeaway is that Biden is a competent, credible veteran politician. He had teleprompter screens up, which seems to me both odd and unnecessary. Odd because he is saying things he has said dozens of time, and in fact he walked away from the screens to stand directly in front of the audience with a hand-held microphone. He didn’t seem to use the teleprompter.
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| Selfies crush |
I actually agree that Biden is not new and exciting the way that Buttigieg or Warren are, or in the way Sanders was in 2016 or Obama was in 2008 or JFK was in 1960.
In a Baskin-Robbins metaphor, the new candidates are Butter Pecan Swirl and Raspberry Blackberry Rainbow, newish, niche flavors and one wonders what they are like. Biden is Classic Vanilla, familiar and broadly popular. Biden is not “the next new thing.” But he is not an embarrassment, either, and that alone sets him up for a pretty good alternative choice to Trump. Trump turned out to be Crazy Firecracker Drama, a pepper flavored surprise. Classic Vanilla is a plausible contrast.
Fifty two years ago I started a habit of reading the NY Times. I have considered the Times authoritative, the best example of real news.
But I was there, alongside the Times reporter. I saw what I saw, and what I saw was different.
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| The 10 year old I observed |
My headline would be: “Three hundred Iowans endure sweltering heat to hear Biden make case that America is better than Trump.” The story would be that he shared a long career as a liberal, evolving with his politics along with the changing center of liberal politics, sounding vigorous but not hyper, an old-style ethnic and family oriented Catholic, well positioned to regain the votes of the traditional “family values” conservatives who feel disrespected by the tone of woke, secular Democrats, and who reacted in 2016 by voting for Trump.
So this blog will use a different set of photographs, what I observed, which includes a 30 minute crush of people eager to get handshakes and selfies with Biden after each event.
I don’t think Biden will turn out to be the Democrats' strongest candidate, but Biden has more appeal than young people—or the NY Times—is choosing to describe.
7 comments:
I used to read the New York Times every day, but eventually I decided not to allow their biases to guide my attention.
i THOUGHT THE MAN WAS TOO OLD WHEN HE ANNOUNCED HIS CANDIDACY AND i STILL BELIEVE THAT IS THE CORRECT ASSESSMENT. (I AM A 92 YEAR OLD SENIOR AND i KNOW VERY WELL WHAT AGE CAN DO IN TERMS OF FITNESS. HE SHOULD LEND HIS EXPERTISE TO THE YOUNGER PERSON COMING UP THRU THE RANKS THAT HE BELIEVES SHOWS THE BEST PROMISE AND RETIRE GRACEFULLY.
BOB WARREN
I think one has to differentiate between Biden the celebrity and Biden the presidential candidate. Two somewhat different things.
Those that for whatever reason would like a photo with an ex-VP and "known person", come for that, rather than to hear about policy. In this hyper-media, celebrity driven time, a tribute to the success of mass marketing, anyone with a claim to achievement, however faint, can be inflated to messianic levels and draw a crowd.
Beatlemania.
I would contrast this to Sen. Warren's events. They look like they are more substantial in terms of folks actually interested in her positions, and who see her as the absolute opposite of El Señor, something Biden can't quite get to. I think she should be leading, and that only vestigial misogyny in the Democratic Party (Wow, did I say that out loud?), and magical thinking around Biden's progressive credentials holding her back.
A case could be made that El Señor's rallies are part curiosity seekers who aren't necessarily followers or even voters. No real way to know, but it's been noted that the MAGhats are somewhat denser at recent events suggesting that the novelty has worn off, leaving the true believers who may be more into the fun of being with like minded folks who don't shun them when they wear their caps in the real world and where they can pretend they matter.
Apparently, the NYT is not impervious to promoting "fake news." That must be disappointing to any long-time reader who likes Biden and to those who have previously overlooked past NYT transgressions (for example, promoting Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction).
Yes, Rick, the American people are generally a star-struck lot. As H.L. Mencken said: “No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
Andy Seles
" where they can pretend they matter."
Say what, Rick? Some of your fellow Americans are people that DON'T matter?
One reason Trump is in the White House is that he openly welcomed white people of all income and education levels to his rallies.
While PROgressives disdain crowds that are 'too white.'
If PROgressives are ever going to implement Universal Health Care and raise the minimum wage, Americans will have to like each other enough to want each other to have good jobs and good health care. Feels to me like we are moving away from that, with American tribes hating each other more and more.
As a former longtime subscriber to the NYT, I finally let it go, because of incidents like you describe in the blog. It happens more and more frequently, it seems, and save for Dr. Krugman, none of their other columnists
have much to offer these days.
Even though the NYT described this event incorrectly, theee still wasn’t real news here. The number of people expected showed up and Biden was well received—but nothing really newsworthy. When larger crowds than expected show up and campaigns have to reschedule events in bigger venues at the last minute—-that’s news. Warren is starting to get those kind of headlines and you can’t call that fake news.
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