By Curt Anderson May 17, 2020 7:52 pm Category: Politics (3.0 from 2 votes)
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Joe Biden doesn't have the youthful charisma of Bill Clinton in 1992 or Barack Obama in 2008. The majority of Americans are probably less motivated to vote for Joe Biden than they are motivated to vote against Donald Trump.
It really is an anybody-but-Trump election for many Americans, as pollsters have revealed: "President Trump is trailing a generic Democratic presidential candidate by 7 points with a little under eight months to go before Election Day, according to a Hill/HarrisX poll released Friday. Forty-six percent of registered voters in the poll said they would vote for the Democratic nominee compared to 39 percent who said they'd support Trump. Another 15 percent were unsure." See link below.
Voters who voted against Trump in 2016 are much more determined to vote now than they were four years ago. The 2018 midterms demonstrated a strong anti-Trump fervor.
Whenever a president is running for re-election, it's a job evaluation of the incumbent. Biden's campaign should make the 2020 election a referendum on the president. Biden doesn't have to be Mr. Excitement to beat Trump. He doesn't need to introduce earth-shaking proposals or policy ideas. Biden merely needs to be a plausible and passable alternative.
Trump's erratic behavior has altered our perception of time. Trump time has been exhausting. It feels like we are chasing after a hyperactive child. Everyday seems start with what has he done now? His impeachment seems like it was years ago. He careens from one inane statement to another.
Trump's time in office has been chaotic. Traveling carnival workers have better job security than the cabinet and staff in the Trump administration. Trump disrupts the norms of not just acceptable presidential behavior, but of acceptable adult behavior. No president has been more openly sensitive to criticism than Trump. No American president has launched more ad hominem attacks than Trump. Trump's vindictive tweets are school girl-like in their petulance. In fact, most school girls have a tougher exterior than Trump.
The winning presidential campaign theme of Warren G. Harding was "Return to normalcy". Warren didn't coin the word "normalcy" but he popularized it. The slogan fit the times. The 1920 presidential campaign followed the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu pandemic and World War I which had recently ended.
One hundred years later, in these crazy pandemic and economic times, Americans yearn for a president who acts normally. Biden doesn't have to knock himself out to present himself as normal. He is going up against a guy who suggested that disinfectant cleaning solution might cure Coronavirus. Given Biden's age, to dispel any fears people might have about his health and his mental acuity, Biden should surround himself with a competent team--a shadow government so to speak. This would reassure voters that Biden's administration will offer steady, if not spectacular, leadership. I suspect that American's would prefer to have less of a spectacle in the White House.
Biden already has a reputation as somebody who listens to opposing viewpoints. Contrast that with Trump who has more than once claimed to know more than anybody including experts on such diverse subjects as medicine and military matters. Furthermore, Biden's political inclinations are to unify while Trump is a divider. Biden is about bridges; Trump is about walls. The contrast in style and approach couldn't be more stark.
To that end, I suggest that Biden adopt that slogan "Dump Trump". It is memorable, it rhymes, it fits on a bumper sticker and it is easy to understand. It also will drive Trump nuts. It wouldn’t hurt if Biden took a page from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Happy Days Are Here Again” optimism which he used to defeat Herbert Hoover in 1932.
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Joe Biden doesn't have the youthful charisma of Bill Clinton in 1992 or Barack Obama in 2008. The majority of Americans are probably less motivated to vote for Joe Biden than they are motivated to vote against Donald Trump. 
