No big rallies. No frantic travel to "Town Halls."
There is more than one way to run for president.
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| Warren Harding |
Joe Biden can campaign in a way that works to his strengths.
Trump does big rallies because he likes them and because they work for him. They also worked for Obama.
Bernie Sanders drew big crowds in 2016 and again this year. His style fits the format: a celebrity messenger with a microphone sharing bold ideas to enthusiastic crowds of the committed and the curious.
In New Hampshire and Iowa all the campaigns tested each other to see how many events they could arrange in a single day.
I have watched Biden up close in Town Hall settings about six times. He isn't at his best. He is not persuasive when reading from a teleprompter, and off the teleprompter he makes errors. He moves slowly. He tells stories but doesn't answer questions sharply. The format shows his vulnerabilities; he isn't quick, nor flexible, nor energetic.
That isn't the only way to campaign.
The Biden brand is that he is a compassionate, empathetic man with deep experience. He is a nice guy, with friends among different kinds of Americans.It is a winning story. It is how he came out atop two dozen other Democrats, every one of them quicker and more articulate. The remaining opponent, Sanders, is a better messenger, speaker, and debater, with a sharper message, but Biden is on track to win. Biden has a safer message and is the better coalition builder.
Biden can campaign as a small group coalition builder, not as a crowd pleaser. I watched him serve chili and tell a group of New Hampshire union firefighters how important and courageous emergency responders were in the accident that killed his wife and daughter. He was dripping with earnestness telling them how much they meant to him. The format told a story: Joe Biden connects.
Biden could run a "Front Porch" campaign, with Biden meeting with friendly groups in his coalition. Firefighters. Police. Black ministers. Women's groups. Union people. Teachers. Environmentalists. Farmers. Mayors. Auto workers. Immigrant leaders. TV cameras will be there to share it with the country. It sends a message of order and control. It is low drama, the Biden brand, bringing back normalcy.
We have seen this work. Candidate Richard Nixon in 1968 did not hold big public rallies where young Democratic hecklers could show up and get on camera. He said he was running a campaign for the public, the real public, the silent majority, people who wanted social peace, and would see him on TV. Nixon had small crowds of invited Republican supporters. It didn't look like reality TV or show business. It looked presidential.In the aftermath of the campaign Joe McGinnis wrote a book, The Selling of the President, in which Nixon was described as a packaged product, and the campaign an extended infomercial. McGinnis meant this as criticism, but in fact the political commentary at the time understood this to be effective campaign discipline from a candidate who knew how to control the message. It projected low drama amid the turmoil of 1968.
Biden can hold a message-of-the-day-campaign, and can make a virtue out of connecting one on one. Sometimes groups might come literally to his front porch. Inviting people to ones home is a singular act of connection and hospitality.
Thad Guyer says that keeping Joe Biden under wraps is the only way to manage a Biden re-election. Guyer is an attorney who specializes in representing whistleblowing employees.
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| Guyer |
Guest Post by Thad Guyer
Biden, "The Gaffe Machine"
"We are guaranteed to be trapped in a continuous loop of Biden gaffes. We are destined to be embarrassed to say he is our nominee, and few democrats can be found who say he was their choice. See "Colbert Questions Biden About Being a Gaffe Machine" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqCcrOPuGU).
We are stuck with Biden, and our best defense is to get him out of the public eye except for scripted speeches. Already there are calls to hide him. See,"Clyburn: DNC should shut down primaries, debates if Biden sweeps states" (the Hill
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/486948-clyburn-dnc-should-shut-down-primaries-debates-if-biden-sweeps-states). The corona virus can provide a credible excuse to stop most of his public appearances. We can't survive with many more gaffes like these:
(1) "We hold these truths to be self-l'evenent. All men and women created by the, go, you know th-, you know the thing."
(2) Befuddled Biden's confusion over how to reelect-- rather than defeat-- Trump. This recent gaffe went especially viral as to a slightly edited version of it posted by the GOP, but both the original and edited versions are disasters.
Biden is being compared to befuddled and senile grandpa Simpson's character. (See, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C03feurAuXw.) Strategists are considering how to prevent Biden from being on a debate stage with Trump. That will be a hard move, but is probably a necessary one."
2 comments:
You CAN'T run for President of the United States (this ain't the school board), and not do public televised debates. If the candidate absolutely refuses to do them, then intelligent voters would question why. Biden will HAVE to get on the stage with Trump for at least two 1 1/2 hour debates. There have been too many precedents established to avoid doing the debates. The entire world already knows that Biden is going senile, and that Trump will mop the floor with Biden. Democrats need to consider that fact before they nominate their next candidate. Bernie may be a socialist, but at last he can stand alone on his own two feet, unlike Biden. Biden is a walking time bomb waiting to explode, and you know it.
Totally agree with Anonymous, however, that doesn't mean the Biden strategy, "Biddin' his time" won't work because it already has...as has been pointed out. He was absolutely TERRIBLE in the Democratic debates thus far, but it didn't matter because the others coalesced around him. He's the insider/corporatists' choice. What gets ignored are the national polls, which includes all voters, that shows Sanders their favorite politician. The insiders are betting that Americans, once again, will vote for the lesser of two evils (literally, in Trump's case). And, if they lose, they can tell their corporate benefactors that they "tried." I'm sad for this country where “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us." (Marriane Williamson)
Andy Seles
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