Analysis: Biden’s lack of presence no match for Trump fever
After months of lame duck campaigning, Joe Biden seemed to kickstart back to life. Then, as Trump mania took hold during the rallies blitz, he disappeared again.
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For a little while there over the weekend, Joe Biden seemed to kickstart back to life.
Trailing around with his former boss, Biden was an energised presence on stage in Michigan, even dishing out some tough talk about how he wouldn’t mind getting into a fistfight with Donald Trump.
Nobody needed to hear this or picture it but at least he was showing some spirit.
After months of lame duck campaigning, protected from the exhausting pressures of the election trail by the cover of COVID, it was almost surprising to see Biden holding his own.
Then, as thousands of cars and trucks formed miles-long Trump convoys across the country and tens of thousands turned out at his five rallies, Biden seemed to disappear again.
A couple of events in Philadelphia, where his delivery was a pallid sequel to his fiery Saturday speeches, and Biden was done by 6.20pm.
The comparison between the two candidates could not have been more stark, and the narrowing polls show that Trump’s blistering campaigning might just be working.
Only a fool would offer up a prediction about who is going to win this race.
But presidential elections are fought in the states and in most of the states that matter it is extremely tight.
There is a lot of talk of people who regret their vote for Trump, but from personal experience and interviews with many Americans over the past few months there are not as many of them as you might think.
Sometimes the media here is so fixated on their hatred for Trump that it seems like their regret over Trump’s victory is prompting them to repeat the mistakes from 2016, telling the story they want to be true rather than what’s actually happening in this country.
Talking to people on the street in Waynesville, North Carolina, earlier this month, I met my first ever Republican turncoat, an army vet who now works in health care and is “disgusted” by Trump’s COVID response.
That’s right, out of conversations in swing states with dozens of voters, and hundreds of Americans over almost four years, I have found only one regretful Trump voter.
For Joe Biden to meet his destiny and actually win this thing, he’s going to need a hell of a lot more of them.
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Originally published as Analysis: Biden’s lack of presence no match for Trump fever