With exactly 15 weeks, 105 days until the Presidential Election of 2020, the best advice to Joe Biden is to allow Donald Trump to “hang himself” with his hysterical ranting and constant lying, and ignore his taunts and crazy conspiracy theories.
Joe Biden should continue to act with statesmanship and dignity in the remaining weeks of the campaign, which he has done so far.
The result has been that Biden is far ahead in all public opinion polls, much larger leads than Hillary Clinton had at the same time in 2016.
Biden is making substantial speeches on various matters, and showing he is fully capable of planning for changes starting six months from today, the day after his inauguration.
He is a calming influence, and gives confidence and hope to millions who are suffering from multiple crises—the CoronaVirus Pandemic, the economic depression, and the civil rights and racial crisis.
The President is planning to engage again in press conferences on the Pandemic, but if he continues to conduct himself as he did in March and April, his ratings will go down ever more.
So the only time for Joe Biden to directly engage with Donald Trump is when the Presidential debates take place on Tuesday, September 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana; Thursday, October 15 at the Adrienne Arsht Center For The Performing Arts in Miami, Florida; and Thursday October 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and the woman chosen for the Vice Presidency by Joe Biden will take place on Wednesday October 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
It is already happening.
Joe Biden doesn’t have to do or say anything.
I sense this election is effectively over.
Donald Trump, who will become the eleventh unseated president in United States history, can be compared to two 20th-century presidents who were also unseated.
2020 Donald Trump is like 1932 Herbert Hoover, who didn’t know what to do with handling the Great Depression—to meaningfully help the people of the United States—just as 2020 Donald Trump doesn’t know what to do with COVID–19.
2020 Donald Trump is like 1980 Jimmy Carter for the last occurrence of two consecutive United States presidential elections having switched the White House party. While it was the only such occurrence during the 20th century, the nation’s voting electorate absolutely wanted to get rid of 1980 Jimmy Carter just as they do with 2020 Donald Trump.
I will share the following video from “The Hill’s†“Rising.†Hosts Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti critique U.S. President Donald Trump’s interview on the July 19, 2020 “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.â€
So all Biden needs to do is more of the same. Ie, not say anything so overtly stupid that even the media can’t cover his tracks, and hope against hope that: some other #MeToo-type peccadillo from his past doesn’t surface; or that the Ukraine isn’t influenced to influence America’s election with some here-to-fore undisclosed info about Junior; or that somebody doesn’t dare ask him what he plans to do about America’s $26.5+ Trillion and growing national, sovereign debt and the $150-200 Trillion Unfundd Liabilities like Social Security, Medicare, Pensions, Veterans, or his plans to end “The Forever War.”
In other words ~ and once again [and as always, assuming there actually is an election] ~ once again, just as in 2016, Americans are given the choice by its ruling socio-economic-politico-legal ruling oligarchic elite between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
As somebody once put it back in the late Summer of 2016: “If ~ in a nation of 330+ million people ~ the best that we can come up with to be President is either The Donald or The Hillary, this nation is in serious trouble, and its Peoples with it.”
So this year, its The Donald and Unca Sleepy Joe, neo-liberal/conservative chronic crony capitalist corporatist [with a history of racism and other unpleasantries] that he is.
Both wholly-owned, -operated, and -co-opted tools of the military-industrial complex, petro-financial web, techno-infotainment matrix, guns n drugs cartels, and surveillance-secrecy-security safety panopticon that is the reality-tv show that rules and is America today, in Year Four of “The Age of Trump and The Reign of POTUS Maxximmuss XLV.”
Also, by interesting coincidence, what some Asians refer to as “The Year of The Rat.”
Why Biden Might Be Trump’s Kryptonite
The president is running against a likable candidate—and that could render him powerless.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/07/21/why-biden-might-be-trumps-kryptonite/
The following observation from New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is almost completely accurate:
“There is no strategy that this president could adopt, no policy choice that he could make, no tweet of himself in a mask that he could issue, that would fundamentally alter his political position. Trump is incapable of normal presidential action, and even if his aides and handlers concocted such a strategy, the man in charge would make sure it would fail … â€
“But that doesn’t make his defeat inevitable. It only means that to speculate about a Trump comeback is to necessarily speculate about possibilities that are outside the president’s control.â€
I’d say it was 100 percent accurate, but there is always hacking and cheating to consider, and Trump would presumably have to sign off on that, wouldn’t he?
Perhaps not, actually, since he’s no more capable of concocting a sophisticated and successful plan to steal an election than he is of running a honest solvent business. If something like that were to work, it would be executed by people Trump doesn’t control.
Assuming there is an honest count, even taking into consideration all the typical voter suppression shenanigans of the Republicans, it’s almost impossible to conceive of Trump winning the popular vote. It’s also nearly as difficult to see him winning the Electoral College. He isn’t going to do anything to help himself, either, so the odds heavily favor a steady worsening of his position rather than any improvement.
But it’s conceivable that Joe Biden could stumble badly or that the mood of the country shifts hard against the Democrats. Douthat suggests that a sudden improvement in the coronavirus crisis combined with an uptick of social protest could provide this kind of mood change, and I think that’s correct. I also think Douthat is right to be skeptical that urban unrest would be as impactful as it was in the late-1960s, since white flight has already occurred in this instance. It’s probably true, too, that a magical disappearance of the virus through a vaccine or lower-than-expected herd immunity would probably have a calming effect, making widespread looting less likely.
Trump’s biggest problem is himself, but the Democrats knew what they were doing when they chose Biden to run against him. As Douthat says, “There still remains the difficulty that not enough Americans are afraid to vote for Joe Biden, notwithstanding the Trump campaign’s attempt to brand him as the candidate of Antifa.â€
Choosing a likable candidate to run against Trump was the magic kryptonite missing from the 2016 election. It renders the president virtually powerless, and now he’s just hoping that Biden’s choice of a running mate will give him a batter opportunity to attack. Preventing that possibility must be part of the thinking behind Senator Tammy Duckworth as a potential pick. A multi-racial disabled woman who was wounded in the line of duty in Iraq is not someone who can be effectively mocked and ridiculed. More kryptonite.
Duckworth would fit a do-no-harm strategy, but Biden probably has the luxury of picking anyone he deems qualified and suitable as a partner. What should keep him up at night are the things he can’t control.
This election is a referendum on Trump and his 4+ years of chaos and outrage and incompetence. He is going to continue to self-sabotage right up to the end.
Slipping In the Polls, Trump Revives the Coronavirus Briefing
The president doesn’t care about the pandemic. He only cares about his reelection.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/07/22/slipping-in-the-polls-trump-revives-the-coronavirus-briefing/
Seconded, Leia.
Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?
Trump is the first incumbent president to think that sowing chaos helps him politically.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/07/22/are-you-better-off-than-you-were-four-years-ago/
Trump is threatening to extend his Gestapo squads to New York, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia.
Mitch McConnell thinks expiring COVID-19 benefits are super funny.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/22/1962895/-Mitch-McConnell-thinks-expiring-worker-benefits-are-super-funny
In Trump’s version of America, the KKK and neo-Nazis can march around with their threatening looking guns, but, black and brown people are to be silenced, shot at with rubber bullets, tear gassed, etc.
Everything We Need to Know About Trump We Learned in 2016
As Maya Angelou might say, “When a candidate tells you who they are the first time, believe them.â€
Trump is a racist.
Trump is a serial sexual abuser.
Trump is a xenophobe.
Trump welcomes foreign interference in U.S. elections.
Trump consistently abuses people who work for him.
Trump has no concept of justice.
Trump is an ignorant narcissist.
Trump is a bully.
Trump is a serial liar.
Trump incites violence against protesters.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/07/23/everything-we-need-to-know-about-trump-we-learned-in-2016/
How Conservative Ideology Twists the Republican Party in Knots
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/07/23/how-conservative-ideology-twists-the-republican-party-in-knots/
Of Course, Democrats Should Welcome the Help of Never Trumpers
There will be plenty of room for policy debates once Biden is president.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/07/23/of-course-democrats-should-welcome-the-help-of-never-trumpers/