Why Biden wants to run on character
It’s because Trump’s agenda is better
We’ve entered the home stretch of the convention season, and here’s what I think:
Objectively speaking, President Donald Trump gives you every reason to believe he’s not a good person. He has not treated the people in his personal life well, and several professional associates went to jail or are perhaps headed that way. Not saying that Trump is responsible for their bad judgment, but … come on.
He says rude and self-defeating things that leave members of his own party defending the indefensible. He has driven everyone crazy (including the news media, which is endearing to his supporters). His embrace of conspiracy theorists is a dead end for his party and corrosive to our national political culture. He has said things during moments of crisis that were, charitably, extremely harmful to his political position, leaving the nation wondering what the hell is going on.
On the other hand, he has delivered on deeply held Republican priorities and offers a reasonable center-right path for the nation — tax cuts, conservative judges, pro-life policies and scaling back government regulations. He built a rocking economy that worked for everyone. He cut a major peace deal in the Middle East, proving wrong those who said his style would lead to instability or war. He is dead right about Democratic mayors allowing lawless rioters to destroy parts of American cities. And he has stood up to China after presidents of other parties would not.
Make America Normal Again
This week, he’ll hopefully explain how he can Make America Normal Again, which is really what everyone wants. He needs the election to be a choice between himself and the radical Democrats who’d “transform” (Joe Biden’s word) America for the worse. This is the framing of the race he can win.
Objectively, Joe Biden is clearly past his prime. Confused, out of touch and a 50-year record that leaves people wondering — what does this guy really believe? Unlike Trump, it is often other Democrats who put Biden in the position of defending the indefensible, but he just accepts it for the most part (he moved shockingly left on abortion and immigration in the primary and promised massive tax increases, too).
There is a healthy fear that Biden is too diminished, passive and “transitional” to say no to the radical voices who want to control the Democratic Party and want to control its future.
Former Obama administration Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: “I think he’s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Despite former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s argument at the Democratic National Convention, there will be no return to the good ol’ days of a moderate Democratic Party. Heck, Biden and Barack Obama were elected in 2008 on a platform that opposed gay marriage and promised to burn coal in power plants! To the young radicals orbiting Biden’s campaign, his 2008 win might as well have happened in 1908.
On the other hand, Biden and his wife, Jill, possess compassion at a time when we sorely need it and would likely bring relief to our national political exhaustion. The former vice president would represent a much-needed departure from the celebrification of American politics, which ramped up dramatically under Obama, gave us Trump and now infects everything.
Biden wants a pure referendum on Trump the person, never mind the policy implications of electing extremely liberal Democrats to high office.
In terms of the Democratic talent pool showcased at their convention, it was expert swimmers, the Obamas, surrounded by a bunch of people who still need water wings. Despite a satisfactory delivery, Biden’s acceptance speech was written for people who already hate Trump and swoon over old reruns of “The West Wing.”
One thing I’ve wondered about Biden: Would he be as insufferably arrogant as the Obamas? During her antiTrump broadside, Michelle Obama said, “Now, I understand that my message won’t be heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic convention.”
Translation: If you don’t agree with everything I say, you are either stupid or racist. This attitude, which President Obama exuded for eight years, was part of why Trump won in 2016. Biden would be better off to find some humility in the Oval Office, as there has been none since George W. Bush left office.
Post-Obama political desert
The trouble with identity politics is that the color of your skin or your gender or sexuality is no predictor of talent. As they were busily checking identity boxes, no Democrat stopped to ask whether California Sen. Kamala Harris is actually good at running for national office. She’s qualified, for sure, with serious experience at various levels of government. But had Biden thought about her recent history — a miserable presidential campaign that never made it to Iowa, was rife with infighting and was put out of its misery by Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, of all people — he might have thought better of it.
Harris’ speech last week was a mess. Attempts by Democrats to spin it otherwise reminded me of Republicans always characterizing Trump’s latest debacle as four-dimensional chess. Sometimes things just stink.
Just a few months ago, Harris was landing broadsides on Biden as a toady for segregationists; today, she pitches him as a modern day Nelson Mandela.
That sound is your BS detector screaming.
Nonetheless, the Democrats march on, desperate for any drink of water as they wander a post-Obama political desert. They presented no platform in the past week beyond “not Trump, with a side of empathy,” although I think their convention, given the COVID-related challenges, was executed well enough. They are hoping you don’t think too hard about the Green New Deal, massive tax increases and a further government takeover of your health care.
Which ticket will America choose? Biden is winning, sure, but if you think Trump can’t find a way out of the wilderness, think again.