Joe Biden Bets on Being the Anti-Trump Candidate

[Shrek]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/joe-biden-bets-on-being-the-anti-trump-candidate

Before Biden entered the race, in April, many of the leading candidates weren’t talking much about the President. Trump’s disorienting political position—he looks strong or weak, depending on the angle—allowed everyone, from senators to midsize-city mayors and coffee moguls, to see themselves as his potential replacement. But, in the campaign’s early days, the top candidates—Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris—spent much of their time either introducing themselves to the public or offering a range of diagnoses and prescriptions for the chronic ailments of the country. Even today, as William Finnegan recently reported, Beto O’Rourke doesn’t talk about defeating Trump as much as he could, even though it’s a guaranteed applause line at campaign stops.

Biden, by contrast, made Trump his focus from the start. His campaign slogan is “Our best days lie ahead.” It might instead be “Let me at ’em.” In his launch ad, Biden called for a break with this “aberrant moment” and treated the President’s “very fine people on both sides” response to the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a singular moment of intolerable Presidential behavior. Whereas some of his opponents have sought to situate Trump within broader currents of racism, nationalism, or conservatism, Biden has shown a willingness to isolate Trump, particularly from the Party that enables and supports him. “With Trump gone, you’re going to begin to see things change,” Biden said on Monday, speaking about Republicans in Congress. “Because these folks know better. They know this isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing.” (Do they though? Mitch McConnell didn’t need Trump to stonewall Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination.)

[DownriverDem]

1. Folks

want normalcy. Biden represents normalcy. They want someone who will know what they are doing from day one. They want someone who will take it to trump. It's a numbers game. trump is counting on winning the states he won last time. Right now trump is way down in those states like Michigan. Focus on who can win the electoral college and beat trump. That's all that matters. Then and only then will progressive ideas see the light of day. I would love to see a Biden/Harris ticket.