Jill Biden: "I had that window made up to look like the White House's. Joe likes to stand there staring; sometimes he talks to the squirrels."
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.
agreed...
Video killed the Democrat star.
Joe’s continuing bid is an indelible illustration of the pathologically criminal agenda and venal mentality of his corner.
Anyone with an ounce of self respect, respect for him OR the US would have yanked Joe, by now.
For sure Joe hasn’t figured this out, himself
Drooling Joe killed his own chances long before the CV panic. He been the walking dead candidate for a long while.
Buchanan tries to spin Nixon’s treatment of McGovern as something noble. He avoided ever mentioning McGovern’s name during the campaign. I think most people saw that as a deliberate insult, a sign of utter contempt. That’s not healthy in a democratic election. McGovern would have been a terrible President, but he was a war hero who risked his life many times during WWII.
Biden is a horn toad. If there are any debates he wouldn’t last 20 minutes before CNN would be having “technical difficulties”.
Biden could have made some campaign progress had he offered any positive ideas how to cure the virus and/or end the forced economic shutdown and depression with its millions of destroyed jobs. But he’s just prattled mindlessly. His candidacy is toast. The DNC puppetmeisters need to come up with a new candidate and fast, too.
“But if Biden cannot gather crowds to hear him in a time of social distancing”
Remind me of a time before social distancing when Biden was gathering crowds to hear him.
We may want that, Biden's own inner circle is whispering he won't make it already.
It won't even be a brokered convention at this point. The fix is getting put in for someone. Cuomo denies it'll be him. I think it will be.
Hellary
Gropin' Joe's "momentum" was only media-created fiction created to prop up a failing campaign by the weakest candidate.
“America’s worst pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1918.”
Perception is reality, it seems.
Awful dressed up for just staring out the window at home.... Hey, you don’t think that’s a staged “look Presidential” photo op do you?
McGovern was also a candidate who said he would crawl on his knees to Viet Nam to secure peace. That’s how you lose 49 states.
With her running mate Michael LaVaughn Robinson.
I agree, the smart move for Cuomo is 24. Beating an incumbent is hard enough but one that just guided the nation through a crises is a damn steep climb and the stench of a Presidential campaign loss is an anchor. Because Joe is an idiot he committed to a woman VP when he didn’t have to. He had the nomination already locked. He could pick Cuomo and received praise for doing so. He does it now and he gets hurt for breaking a promise. The DNC could attempt to toss Joe for Andy but Cuomo should say no. On the other hand Cuomo will never be more popular nationally then he is right now. Many have forgotten for the moment what a leftist creep he actually is.
Good point. I’m sure many of this year’s candidates, such as Elizabeth Warren, Klobuchar, Buttgig, etc. also in anticipation of Trump’s reelection, will run again in 2024 when there will not be an incumbent president.
Joe Biden was never going to win this election regardless of the pandemic. He is the designated loser, a place-holder installed to make sure there was no chance Bernie could win and disrupt the Democrat establishment gravy-train.
Too bad Andrew Cuomo let himself be filmed making that horrifying “America was never great” speech. There’s no chance in hell he’ll ever win with that campaign ad running 24/7.
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