Biden’s winning strategy: Let Trump beat himself

Joe Biden’s people called to tell me that the former vice president is leading President Trump by 11 points on average in the key states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The latest Fox News Poll finds that nationally, voters think Biden would to do a better job than Trump on health care by 17 points and on the coronavirus pandemic by nine points. Trump still has a threepoint lead on the economy, the poll says.

It wasn’t intentional, but it looks like Biden’s selfquarantine in the basement of his Delaware home is paying off. I urge him to stay in the bunker.

It’s not that I worry about Biden being exposed to the coronavirus.

I worry about him being overexposed to the media,

which could do some serious damage to his chances of beating Trump in November.

And that includes interviews. He should avoid them whenever possible; they inevitably seem to trip him up.

Biden is no Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. At best Biden is an Al Gore, and that type of personality does not move the needle with voters.

The only time Biden should appear in public is in small, controlled settings where he can be seen bantering with a couple of “real people.”

I often joked that Biden, or whomever the Democrats nominated, should fly off to a remote island far from the cameras, sit back and watch Trump defeat himself.

It looks like the island has come to Biden. Cleanup call: My superlawyer friend Joe Cotchett wrote a note to the entire alumni of UC Hastings College of the Law urging them to back the lawsuit filed by the school and other businesses demanding that San Francisco clean up the tentinfested Tenderloin.

The tents on the streets are driving the residents crazy.

Having walked the area, I can see why. The tents have taken over the sidewalks, forcing everyone to walk in the street. Pajama party: The Chronicle’s Tal Kopan recently wrote a story about my old Assembly seatmate Rep. Jackie Speier and her video calling out colleagues who sleep in their D.C. offices. The San Mateo Democrat donned very fashionable pajamas and put a sheet and pillow on her office’s sofa to make a point.

That point: Members of Congress are not only freeloading off taxpayers when they turn their offices into their bedrooms, but they’re risking inappropriate encounters with staffers and, in a pandemic, endangering Capitol cleaning crews.

All true. But what’s also true is that D.C. is an expensive place, and for members who have to maintain a homedistrict residence as well, the $174,000ayear congressional salary doesn’t go too far.

They either need a raise or a dormitory, but we should do something. After all, holding public office should not be a playground reserved for rich people.

Secret garden: I’ve been taking regular strolls around the city just to keep my sanity, and have been rewarded with sights and sounds you can only experience when walking.

For example, at Howard and Langton streets near the United Playaz headquarters. I came across one of the most beautiful small community gardens in the city.

It’s run by the city and is overflowing with an incredible collection of flowers and plants.

It’s also fenced and locked at night, so no tents.

Common ground: George Dobbins, program director for the Commonwealth Club, tells me they’ve held 60 virtual lectures since the shutdown and that the response has been as good as or better than when the talks were delivered in the club’s auditorium.

Great news for the likes of Zoom, but very disappointing for those of us who love to speak and interact with a live audience.

Going the distance: The Laguna Seca raceway is hosting “driveup” graduation ceremonies for high school students in Monterey County.

Each graduate and the family can drive the entire track to the finish line, where their diploma is passed to them by a school official.

With gloves and appropriate distancing, of course.

What a great idea! Maybe drivethrough graduations will become the order of the day. We could do ours on Market Street, or better yet, along the Embarcadero from the ballpark to Fisherman’s Wharf.

At risk: I stopped into Tommaso’s in North Beach to pick up a pizza and fell in to talking with the guy ahead of me.

“Come here often?” I asked.

“Here and everywhere else. I get takeout every night,” he said. “Really?”

“I’m not sure what the virus would do to me,” he said. “But I’m certain my husband’s cooking will kill me.”