GENE THERAPY
Gene Collier says the president is likely to get the matchup he was impeached trying to prevent.
If it isn’t perfectly clear already, the 2020 presidential campaign will be down to two characters within days: President Donald Trump and Democrat survivor Joe Biden, aka the exact matchup Mr. Trump got himself impeached trying to prevent.
Mr. Trump much preferred a contest against Bernie Sanders so he could blare the socialism siren around the clock and spend the next 7½ months golfing, tweeting and victimizing himself, but that road will be closed here in the next few days.
Mr. Sanders is still scheduled to debate Mr. Biden on Sunday night, at least as of my deadline, but it will be in Washington instead of Phoenix, and it will play out in an empty studio rather than for the entertainment pleasure of a hooting CNN audience — as it should, virus or no. But just about everyone knows Bernie is a walking ghost in this campaign now, having been scorched so badly in Michigan’s primary this week that one of his senior advisers blurted to Yahoo News, “the [expletive] plane has crashed into the mountain.”
The metaphorical mountain was a broad coalition of Biden voters in a state Mr. Sanders needed desperately (and so will Mr. Trump) — a coalition of union workers, African Americans and suburban whites. The Sanders revolution among young voters and passionate Bernie Bros again failed to mobilize sufficiently, and whether they will for the allbut-inevitable Biden nomination remains an open question, but it appears at least negotiable.
If Mr. Biden can persuade Mr. Sanders that he’s progressive enough to engender some Democratic loyalty — something Hillary Clinton could or would not do in 2016 — Mr. Biden will only deepen Mr. Trump’s nightmares. As Kevin DeWine, a former chairman of the Republican Party in Ohio, explained it to the New York Times on Wednesday: “If it’s
“If it’s Biden, you’ll have disaffected Republicans run to the polls to vote for Biden because they’re just looking for normal and sane.”
— Kevin DeWine, a former chairman of the Republican Party in Ohio
Biden, you’ll have disaffected Republicans run to the polls to vote for Biden because they’re just looking for normal and sane.”
That’s Ohio, a state Mr. Trump can’t win without.
As I’ve noted previously in this space, the race has only one issue and, for the Democrats, one qualification. The issue is Mr. Trump and the qualification is electability. After losing primaries in four states Tuesday, Mr. Sanders still claimed to be winning the “generational” argument but admitted to “losing the electability argument.”
That’s another way of saying, “game over.”
Still, Mr. Biden’s work is only beginning.
You should be able to run a baked potato against Mr. Trump and win by double digits, but too many Democrats consider Mr. Biden a baked potato who’s been hanging out in the back of the oven since about 1992. His problems with young people won’t disappear overnight, and he will remain an indestructible gaffe machine. The perceptual distance between the real Joe and his Saturday Night Live caricature (uproariously delivered by Jason Sudeikis) isn’t significant enough to put Mr. Biden into the White House one day ahead of schedule.
Mr. Biden’s remarks this week, however, and his coronavirus presentation in particular, gave him a running start.
“Tonight I’m speaking to you from the National Constitution Center, not far from two of the most important documents in all of history were written,” Mr. Biden said late Tuesday in Philadelphia. “The Declaration of Independence — ‘we hold these truths to be selfevident’ — those words became the American creed known around the world, (and) the U.S. Constitution — ‘we the people’ — these words literally changed the world.
“We’ve never fully lived up to the promise of either of those documents, but we’ve never, ever before walked away from them. They’re a reminder of what’s at stake in this election. Our very democracy is at stake in this election. And I said from the moment I announced [his campaign] not far from here, that I believe we’re in a battle for the soul of this nation. With Donald Trump as president, our core values, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America, America, is truly at stake. I believe this nation can overcome four years of Donald Trump, but given eight, four more years, you’ve forever and fundamentally changed the very character of this nation. We can’t let that happen. Winning means uniting America, not sowing more division and anger. It means having a president that not only knows how to fight but knows how to heal. It means replacing a president who demeans and demonizes people with a president who believes in empathy, compassion, respect for everyone.
“We are a decent, brave, resilient moment. We are better than this moment. We just need to remember who we are. This is the United States of America; there’s not a single thing we cannot do if we do it together.”
Two days later, he stood and spoke coherently and comprehensively about what a coordinated, multiagency federal response ought to look like on a matter of a historic medical urgency.
That looks like a very palatable potato right now.