Joe Biden’s style puts him in strong stead to take on Donald Trump
Joe Biden has taken primaries in states where he didn’t have a chance. So a less public, more virtual campaign will suit him as coronavirus spreads. But many are unsure if he can beat Donald Trump.
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It’s easy to forget former vice president Joe Biden’s political obituaries were being written just last month.
Following disastrous showings in early voter contests to decide the Democratic presidential nominee, many observers turned to the question of which other “moderate” would rise to take on socialist Bernie Sanders for the prize, with billionaire Mike Bloomberg considered a frontrunner.
Mr Biden’s stumbling performances in the early stages of the 2020 primary races, when he often couldn’t finish a clear thought in a single sentence, sent terrified Democratic Party heavyweights scrambling for a plan to stymie Mr Sanders’ bid to take on Mr Trump, fearing such a situation would lead to an easy re-election for the former reality TV star.
“Biden’s ‘great pretender’ campaign is all but officially over,” opined CNBC commentator Jake Novak on February 12.
“Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential hopes are finished. Yes, there are a couple of examples of candidates who failed in Iowa and New Hampshire who went to win their party’s presidential nomination. But none failed as spectacularly as Biden has. This is over.”
Seventeen days later, Mr Biden did exactly what he’d been saying for weeks that he was going to do: he thumped the field in the South Carolina primary, pulling down Mr Sanders’ pants in spectacular fashion as he won 60 per cent of the black vote.
“Although you’ve been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign,” Mr Biden told his euphoric supporters in South Carolina. Since then, he has gone on to dominate the contests, rubbing out rivals one by one, and America is now just waiting for Mr Sanders to concede.
Of the two, the pandemic-fuelled shutdown of the US appears to carry the most sting for Mr Sanders, who is not able to hold the large public rallies and door knocking that built his passionate base. His radical and costly platform of free college education, banning fossil fuels and a new, government-run health care system are also far more jarring to an American public whose leaders are openly discussing the possibility of 20 per cent unemployment in a “worse case” coronavirus hit to the economy.
Mr Biden has now taken primaries in states where he didn’t even have a ground force, so a less public, more virtual campaign will suit his style.
While he’s still running far to the left of many previous Democratic candidates, his policies of two years free state college, expanded government healthcare support and a gradual withdrawal from fossil fuels are also far more palatable.
Barring another unforeseen event - and yes, there are plenty of those around - it will be Mr Trump versus Mr Biden come November.
Publicly, the President says he relishes the opportunity to take on Mr Biden, even though the former Obama administration VP remains 6.4 points ahead in an average of national polling.
“I hope it’s Biden,” Mr Trump has openly told reporters. “Biden was never very smart. He was a terrible student. His gaffes are unbelievable. When I say something that you might think is a gaffe, it’s on purpose, it’s not a gaffe. When Biden says something dumb, it’s because he’s dumb.”
That’s as may be, but while you can accuse Mr Biden of many things, a lack of self-awareness isn’t one of them.
“I am a gaffe machine,” he said in 2018, before formally entering the Democratic party race to challenge Mr Trump this November.
“But my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can’t tell the truth.”
And while there have been questions about his mental acuity and even claims by his enemies that he’s suffering dementia after several slips on the campaign trail, it’s worth remembering that Mr Biden’s vocal bumbling has been a hallmark of his decades-long political career.
Like the time at a campaign rally in 2008 when he implored a senator to “stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see you”, before realising the Senator was confined to a wheelchair.
“Oh, god love you, what am I talking about! You’re making everybody else stand up though, pal.”
And despite his now almost mythically high standing among black voters, Mr Biden famously described Barack Obama in 2007 as “the first sort of mainstream African-American, who is articulate and bright and clean, and a nice-looking guy. That’s storybook, man.”
Later in the same campaign, he introduced the future president as “Barack America!” without a hint of irony.
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Yet over the years, it seems the underlying honesty in these gaffes has endeared Mr Biden to many Americans, like the time he said frankly that Hillary Clinton “might have been a better pick than me” for vice president.
Now it looks like the mainstream Democratic party machine has got the man it wanted for the fight.
Opinion varies wildly on whether Mr Biden will be able to withstand the blowtorch expected to be applied by Mr Trump in the general campaign.
Some are of the opinion that Mr Biden’s perceived “decency” will get him across the line. Critics point out that Mr Trump will spend much of the campaign focusing on the business dealings of Mr Biden and his son Hunter in the Ukraine - which ironically led indirectly to the failed impeachment proceedings against the president.
But the other great unknown is of course what the world will look like in eight months, and whether Americans will be seeking the comfort of a Biden presidency, or a promised-return to the turbocharged economy of Mr Trump’s pre-virus tenure.
Originally published as Joe Biden’s style puts him in strong stead to take on Donald Trump