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Is the Pandemic Killing Biden's Bid?
Townhall.com ^ | March 31, 2020 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 03/31/2020 7:26:01 AM PDT by Kaslin

"This is the question that is going to dominate the election: How did you perform in the great crisis?"

So says GOP Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma in today's New York Times.

GOP National Committeeman Henry Barbour of Mississippi calls the crisis "a defining moment... The more (Trump) reassures Americans, gives them the facts and delivers results, the harder it will be for Joe Biden."

Indeed, it is not a stretch to say Trump's presidency will stand or fall on the resolution of the coronavirus crisis and how Trump is perceived as having led us in that battle. Recent polls appear to confirm that.

Though daily baited by a hostile media for being late to recognize the severity of the crisis, in one Gallup poll a week ago, Trump was at 49% approval, the apogee of his presidency, with 60% of the nation awarding him high marks for his handling of the pandemic.

What was the public's assessment of how Trump's antagonists in the media have performed in America's great medical crisis?

Of 10 institutions, with hospitals first, at 88% approval, the media came in dead last, the only institution whose disapproval, at 55%, exceeded the number of Americans with a favorable opinion of their performance.

The media are paying a price in lost reputation with the nation they claim to represent by reassuming the role of "adversary press" in a social crisis where, whatever one's view of Donald Trump, the country wants the president to succeed.

If Biden begins to mimic a hostile media, baiting Trump at every turn, pointing out conflicts in his views, Joe will invite the same fate the media seem to have brought upon themselves.

Since that Gallup poll, Trump has been seen daily by millions in the role of commander in chief. He speaks from the podium in the White House briefing room or the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office. He is invariably flanked by respected leaders in medicine, science, business and economics. All appear as Trump allies, and Trump treats them as his field commanders in the war on the virus.

And Joe Biden? He pops up infrequently in interviews out of the basement of his Delaware home where, sheltering in place, he reads short scripted speeches from a teleprompter.

And Biden's presence has been wholly eclipsed by daily televised appearances of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is at the epicenter of the crisis in New York. Cuomo is taking on the aspect of both rival and partner to Trump.

What Trump is doing calls to mind Richard Nixon's "Rose Garden strategy" in 1972. Though goaded by the press, Nixon avoided attacking his opponent, George McGovern, and declined to engage him on issues. Instead, Nixon used the Rose Garden to highlight popular initiatives.

Candidate Nixon's campaign strategy in 1972 was not to campaign.

But if Biden cannot gather crowds to hear him in a time of social distancing, how does he get his message out? How does he attack Trump without appearing to undermine the president in his role as a wartime commander in chief, where America wants Trump to succeed?

How does a basement-bound Biden compete with Trump in the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, East Room and Rose Garden?

Whom does Biden call upon to rival Trump's instant access to respected leaders eager to come and stand beside the president in the most serious crisis since World War II?

How does Biden recapture the spotlight of Super Tuesday?

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants Biden to come out and debate. But that seems a no-win proposition.

Moreover, when Biden appears on camera, he often seems confused and forgetful, loses his train of thought and doesn't remember what he came to say. The sense that Biden is losing it is taking hold, and not only on the Republican right.

Democrats have to be looking closely at Cuomo's success, as they wonder how Biden will stand up in the debates with Trump six months from now.

And what lies ahead for Democrats when spring turns into summer?

The Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to begin July 24, have been postponed until 2021. The Democratic National Convention, scheduled for Milwaukee even earlier in July, has yet to be postponed.

But if Tokyo recognizes it would be a terrible risk to the health of athletes and spectators to have people come from all over the world to Japan this summer, would it not also be an intolerable risk to have Americans from all 50 states and U.S. territories arrive for a week of mingling in midsummer in Milwaukee?

For Biden to win this election, Trump must lose it.

And the one way Trump can lose it is the perception on the part of a majority of Americans that he has proven an ineffectual president in America's worst pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1918.

If Trump is seen as the victor over the virus, Biden is toast.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: biden; bidencampaign; covid19; election2020
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1 posted on 03/31/2020 7:26:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Yep. Biden’s online video releases haven’t done him any favors, either.


2 posted on 03/31/2020 7:27:27 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
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To: Kaslin

Joe Biden was never qualified to be President. Now he’s not physically or mentally fit, either.

He’s a babbling dotard and needs to be put out to pasture.


3 posted on 03/31/2020 7:28:20 AM PDT by Spruce
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To: Kaslin

STOP with the very mention of this.

WE WANT BIDEN to make it to Election Day.


4 posted on 03/31/2020 7:29:00 AM PDT by LeonardFMason (Lou Dobbs)
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To: Kaslin

China China China

more investigations of Trump, no doubt. Nanzi P.Lousy has already called for them.


5 posted on 03/31/2020 7:31:50 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Everyone knows Hillary was corrupt, lied, destroyed documents, and influenced witnesses. Rat crime.)
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To: Kaslin

No, Mr. Buchanan, Joe Biden is killing any minuscule chance Joe Biden had of running for president, every time he opens his mouth and inserts his thighs.


6 posted on 03/31/2020 7:31:52 AM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
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To: Kaslin

The DNC will choose Cuomo as its candidate, despite his not having won (or even participated in) a single primary.


7 posted on 03/31/2020 7:32:09 AM PDT by LIConFem (I will no longer accept the things I cannot change. it's time to change the things I cannot accept)
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To: RayChuang88

Uh, he didn’t need any assistance.


8 posted on 03/31/2020 7:32:19 AM PDT by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: Kaslin

Well, as I see it he is defeating himself, or more correctly, his dementia is


9 posted on 03/31/2020 7:32:31 AM PDT by HangnJudge (Kipling was right about humanity)
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No...’Biden’s bid’ was doa...he is a stalking horse and may not make it to the convention , much less November...elder abuse by the dnc...


10 posted on 03/31/2020 7:32:31 AM PDT by TnTnTn
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To: Kaslin

Biden killed his campaign.


11 posted on 03/31/2020 7:33:34 AM PDT by bgill (Idiots. CDC site doesn't recommend wearing a mask to protect from COVID-19)
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To: Kaslin

Old Slow PedoJoe is the perfect “sacrificial candidate” because they think he doesn’t hurt the down ticket. What hurts their down ticket is this virus. Most people with a modicum of sanity, including the soccer moms, are now seeing what they really are at every level and want no part of em.
But yeah, SloJoe needs to hang in there till November even if it is abuse of the elderly...LOL.


12 posted on 03/31/2020 7:34:15 AM PDT by lgjhn23 (Libs are a virus.....the DemoVirus!!)
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To: Kaslin

Joe has never been a serious threat to Trump.

Would anyone trade a million dollars for a dirty penny?


13 posted on 03/31/2020 7:34:21 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Nobility is defined by the demands it makes on us - by obligations, not by rights".)
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To: LIConFem

He’s a loser too.


14 posted on 03/31/2020 7:35:15 AM PDT by chris37 (Coronavirus wasn't born in a bowl of bat soup.)
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To: Kaslin

Cruella can't wait to get back in the ring with a street fighter.

15 posted on 03/31/2020 7:36:00 AM PDT by deadrock (Speak in haste, repent at leisure.)
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To: Kaslin

If Joementia makes it to the debates Chief, try not to laugh.

Yo gymnasium Joe. Let’s go man. Behind the gym. We’re all about the same age. You can bring your feeble friend Barnie with you. Say bye to your loved ones.


16 posted on 03/31/2020 7:36:14 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: LIConFem

The media is trying to push the perception that Cuomo has led effectively in NY. That’s the chosen narrative. I don’t know if that’s going to sell well. From what I see, I am not impressed.


17 posted on 03/31/2020 7:36:14 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: LIConFem

If “social distancing” is kept in place through the Dem convention, even if the bulk of the threat has passed. preventing a viable convention.

It is going to be a tough sell that the nominee is anybody BUT Biden.

If Cuomo was smart. He would make this his defining hour and let Trump have the re-election. Or let Biden fail. And then mount a serious campaign for the 2024 up for grabs non incumbent race.


18 posted on 03/31/2020 7:36:26 AM PDT by uranium penguin
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To: Kaslin

His bids already been flatlining from the beginning.


19 posted on 03/31/2020 7:36:29 AM PDT by lionstar
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To: Kaslin

Babylon Bee...

PHILADELPHIA, PA—In an effort to make their candidate seem relevant, the Biden campaign has announced a new podcast that will be available exclusively on vinyl.

Every week, Biden will release short soundbite updates that will be pressed on 45s, while his longer, feature-length podcast will be on full-size 33-1/3 records.

“Every day after school, when you gather with your chums to listen to records, why not give my podcast a spin?” Biden said in a speech. “You’re down at the hop, doo-woppin’ with all the cool cats, and maybe they’ll think you’re square for wantin’ to spin a record from ol’ Uncle Biden here. But you gotta tell ‘em they’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ and you’re the one who’s cookin’ with gas.”

“Anyway, text www. 30330 to Joe dot biz to check out the new podcast, folks,” he concluded.

Sources have also confirmed that the podcast played backward is just as incoherent as the podcast played forward.


20 posted on 03/31/2020 7:36:43 AM PDT by albie
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