The Battle Plan
I have to give credit where credit is due. William Kristol came up with a thought on the campaign that I had not really considered. The idea was essentially for Joe Biden to beat Donald Trump by ignoring him. Of course, tactics can be heavily debated and they probably will be between now and the conventions when things really start ramping up.
The idea (for those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole) is that traditional campaign tactics will backfire. Engaging with Trump treats him like any other candidate and simply becomes a traditional race between two traditional candidates. Admittedly, this is risky. Denying a debate could be seen as ducking your opponent. Such a gambit would have to involve every effort to make Biden seem more than viable. If he appears to be energetic, coherent, and working for the people then he can overcome the obvious slings and arrows for a failure to engage.
That means not only not debating him but also not even addressing him. Honestly, what does anyone think they will get out of a debate anyway? Trump speeches are degenerating into a river of word salad. His voters aren’t really weighing two coherent candidates with competing visions for the country. Those that are undecided on Biden are undecided based on his age. Watching him stand next to another old man isn’t going to move the needle that much.
One of the things I’m thankful for is discussing politics with my wife. She is a dedicated independent so she holds no punches. Her frustration is she got the feeling that Biden was supposed to be a one term president, but no one from the Democratic party stepped up to take the mantle. That is likely because everyone was waiting for Biden to step aside.
The image you get is of three fielders standing around an easy pop fly and waiting for one of the other fielders to take the reigns and catch it. The ball hilariously drops to the ground with three fielders all staring at each other. In this case it’s not that hilarious. I’m not really certain who that person would be. One of the problems is that we so readily poke holes in every possible candidate that we end up with a bench of people no one seems to want.
So, what you have are two candidates that few people inside the party seem to want. Yet, no one wants to do anything about it. The fear is that if they do something they are handing the election to the other party or ending their own political career. So, we have three or four fielders standing around and hoping someone else catches the easy fly ball.
It’s too late now. This is the matchup we have. One thing is certain. We cannot treat this like any other race. The press always loves a good horse race and if they have any excuse to turn this into one they will. Biden needs to make this a referendum on his health, vitality, and effectiveness because for undecided voters it is. In a sense, it isn’t even about undecided voters but people that are undecided about whether they want to vote in the first place. It’s not as much a gap between two men but an enthusiasm gap. People aren’t going to get more enthusiastic watching Biden tell us how awful Trump is. If you don’t know that by now you aren’t voting for Biden anyway.
for a debate;
11. tv no audience
2. strict time limits with cut off of pic and mic at end of each session
3. approved moderators by both sides
4. most questions on main issues vs fluff, soft ball
5. no advance notice of topics, questions, to candidates
6. honest side-by-side comparison with appropriate physical separation of candidates
van heldorf @ 1,
I totally agree with 1. thru 6. but donnie-sh!t-for-brains probably wouldn’t show for reasons 1-6. It would be a good look for Biden in a debate with t***** empty podium.
2Well worth considering. Wish we had a different vice pres. Then Biden could just retire after a year or two.
3I pretty much agree with everything that has been said, including your wife’s thoughts. Biden certainly didn’t do anything to build up Kamala for any future as a presidential candidate and other than Newsome, no one has made any noise so we are where we are. Two candidates with huge negative baggage will be our choice. I can only hope by the time the election rolls around, trumpf is so toxic, criminal and corrupt, many repugnanticans will stay home. Don’t get me wrong, I think under the circumstances Biden has done a good job in a broken Washington DC.
4I also agree with both of the comments about a debate. I don’t think trumpf will risk it but if he does, make sure Kristen Welker isn’t the moderator. Need someone strong and in charge that will cut trumpf off when he goes off the rails (which he will).
Another suggestion the candidates must remain in their chairs. I’ll never forget Trump standing behind Hilary in her space, breathing down her neck while she spoke. The moderators were useless. Trump also ignored any time keeper, if there was one.
5The debate suggestions are the minimum but it will never happen that way so why bother? I’d almost rather pay for an hour and just let him debate solo. Answer a moderators questions and move on.
6Caren @3, I am extremely weary of the Kamala Harris trashing. So reminiscent of the Hillary bashing, right down to snarky comments about how she laughs. I have too much to say about this for this space. More coming, maybe I can change some misperceptions.
7I agree, skip the debates.
8If anyone questions or comments, just give the same reasons Trump did when he wouldn’t attend debates before the Republican primaries.
Fenway Fran, I like Kamala Harris (and her husband who really came out hard against trumpf this week). I’m just disappointed that Biden didn’t do anything to get her out there more and build her up like Obama did with him.
9In some other news, I read this morning that Nikki Haley donors are getting behind Biden, and she could prove to be trumpf’s spoiler. Fingers crossed emoji
The stakes in the upcoming election are huge. If tfg is elected, he will never leave the Presidency. And his interest in being an autocratic ruler that considers retribution his first priority has been stated by him every time a microphone is on and in front of him. You only have to look at which world leaders he respects to know how a 2nd Trump Presidency would play out. Anyone still weighing whether to vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden is being willfully blind.
10Nick, At least the second time that you’ve missed the usage of the words “reign” and “rein” [singular or plural], et al.:
“to take the reigns and catch it”.
Don’t know where you got your masters degree [or whether you’ve ever ridden a horse, pony, burro, or mule], but you’d be stuck getting an AA at the totally rigorous schools I went to [even at mid/high level, the nuns and others wouldn’t give any slack on written language. The slightest error on a paper/thesis would doom it.]
.
11As far as Biden vs. tRump, Joe just needs to amp it up, and slam Komrade Donnei every chance he gets.
We know that Biden’s far more fit physically and mentally than the Mango Sonuvabitch.
But Joe needs more caffeine or whatever in order to exhibit it 24/7 to the nation.
Precisely: “If he appears to be energetic, coherent, and working for the people then he can overcome…”.
A debate contrasting them would allow the fencing ace Biden to slice and dice Donnei into slimy strips of rotten meat before millions of eyeballs.
Sandridge, I’m helping a friend with her college writing assignments. She is good at thinking about the subject and dumping those thoughts down on paper (actually, digital). This is good.
And Nick is good at that.
But here’s what I keep telling her: writing is good; rewriting is better. It helps to dump those thoughts out, then take a break, then go over it again (maybe more than a couple of times).
I volunteer to interview high school seniors who have applied for admission to one of the nation’s top universities. In prep last fall for those interviews, I took the online training again, and I found a typo in the university’s training materials. I hope they were embarrassed when I called their attention to the mistake.
Everybody makes mistakes. Nick does us a great service by putting his thoughts out on this website. I’m guessing he doesn’t write an article, then let it rest overnight, then check it again (I do this on my interview reports).
12You caught me Sandridge and slipstream. Editing has always been my weakest link. As I tell my students, the best thing you can do is read your stuff out loud. My mind fills in the blanks and lets the actual errors slip through. I probably rush to get something out too often.
As far as a debate, I just don’t think Trump allows Biden to beat him in a traditional sense. We know Biden is more than capable of doing it, but Trump will play the jackass and completely torpedo it. He is basically Mike Tyson at the end of his career. If you can’t beat your opponent then bite his ear off and become a spectacle instead.
13Neo con Bloody Bill Kristol?
14Ignoring tRump might work as he is a malignant narcissist who is addicted to attention. But President Biden should ram home all the treasonous actions and words of tRump.
Doubt this will pass, but certainly paints a picture of where the magats in congress stand. Good stuff to debate because trumpf is the repugnantican party.
15https://www.rawstory.com/work-until-you-drop-gop-takes-ax-to-social-security-healthcare-civil-rights/
Like a lot of folks I have been hoping to see tRump in jail before the election. That just might not happen. But what is more likely to happen is that he will be flat busted no matter what the RNC does and frankly, right now they aren’t doing very well money wise compared to Biden. I have a new hobby of imagining tRump howling at the moon when New York nabs his businesses.
16That alone should create at least a space for all the rest of us to have some sort of recreation.
This day in history (3/23/1933), Hitler officially became the dictator of Germany with the “enabling act”. This article about trumpf by Robert Reich is pretty scary and why we need to beat the political shit out of him (and in court):
17https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/21/2230665/-Robert-Reich-has-2-videos-about-stuff-the-media-doesn-t-dare-say-about-the-former-guy-or-the-GOP?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email