Why is Joe Biden hidin’?
Joe Biden can’t pick a running mate - and even worse, he can’t risk a debate against Trump - which is why he is rapidly earning the nickname, “Hidin’ Biden”, writes Miranda Devine.
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Donald Trump and Joe Biden are due to debate each other three times before the November 3 election. But a lot of people suspect it won’t happen because, as many a headline puts it, Biden is hidin’.
The televised contests, watched by tens of millions, would be the first real electoral test for the 77-year-old former vice president who has used the cover of the pandemic to remain holed up in his basement for four months.
Anyone who has seen him up close over the past six months knows he suffers from some sort of cognitive deficit, so it’s a test many Democrats are loath to risk.
Now that Biden is beating Trump in the polls they’re hoping to cart him over the finish line before voters notice something is amiss.
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To that end, Biden allies have been floating the idea that he should ditch the debates. Presidential debates have been a fixture of every election for 50 years, yet this outlandish idea is being normalised in the media.
The narrative has formed, and alibis crafted.
“Let’s scrap the Presidential debates,” Elizabeth Drew wrote in the New York Times on Monday. “And not for health reasons.”
And not “out of any concern that Donald Trump will prevail over Joe Biden”.
She is just concerned that debates play an “out-size role in campaigns”.
Pull the other one.
Last week, former Clinton operative Joe Lockhart advised Biden, in an article for CNN: “Whatever you do, don’t debate Trump.
“It’s a fool’s errand to enter the ring with someone who can’t follow the rules or the truth.”
Right.
Last month it was New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a Trump hater and frequent dispenser of unsolicited advice to Democrats: “Biden Should Not Debate Trump Unless.”
“I worry about Joe Biden debating Donald Trump,” Friedman wrote.
“That is not a good way for Biden to reintroduce himself to the American people.”
Debates would give Trump, a cage fighter who wiped the floor with Hillary Clinton in 2016, an “unfair advantage”.
But if Biden can’t handle a debate how can he run the country?
Journalists used to want as much scrutiny as possible of political candidates.
But we all know why lefties don’t want Biden to debate Trump. His brain is not working, and he is not match fit.
The biggest challenges he’s faced since March are Zoom events where he reads from a teleprompter and a couple of recent stage-managed events down the road from his home, after which he takes a four or five softball questions from pre-vetted journalists.
Trump, on the other hand, is well practised in the art of verbal jousting, having to do combat with a hostile Washington press corps almost every day.
Former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe reportedly told a group of Democrats in June that Biden should keep hiding because it’s working in the polls. “He’s fine in the basement,” he said.
Yes, the pandemic has been a political godsend for Biden but, at some point, he has to come out of witness protection.
Already cracks are starting to show in his campaign. Americans are fed up with weeks of anti-police violence in Democrat cities, described as “mostly peaceful protests” by Biden and pals.
A Rasmussen poll on Monday found most voters view the violent protests as “primarily criminal in nature and think they will only make the criminal justice system in America worse”.
The issue plays well for Trump, who has styled himself as the “law and order” President and was just endorsed by the National Association of Police Organisations, which backed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Last week 100 police agencies pulled out of agreements to provide security at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Biden will be crowned later this month, citing local anti-police laws.
Then there is the long-running soap opera of who will be Biden’s running mate.
The choice is more consequential than for previous presidents because of Biden’s age and infirmity, and he has indicated he will not run again in 2024, by which time he would be 82. His vice president will have to be ready Day One to run the country. It’s a bait and switch trick.
But, after weeks of suspense, Biden has delayed announcing his pick.
We know he has confined himself to a woman, and almost certainly a woman “of colour”, which narrows the talent pool to less than 10 per cent of the population.
The various candidates are getting fractious and rival camps are leaking dirt to the media.
Senator Kamala Harris, the Obama intimate once thought to be a shoo-in, is now said to be “too ambitious” and “solely focused on becoming president herself”.
It shows what a mistake it was for Biden to allow identity politics to dictate his choice.
His declining mental energy means that his VP needs to be ready to step into his shoes. Yet he daren’t choose someone so ambitious she will overshadow him in his first term.
But, since it’s not hard to outshine Biden in his current state, if he chooses someone who does not make him look like a lame duck, by definition, she will not have what it takes to be President.
Oh, what a tangled web.
Miranda Devine is in New York for 18 months to cover current affairs for The Daily Telegraph