DAILY BEAST
“Where there is no vision, the people perish…”—Proverbs 29:18
We’ve kicked off 2024 with the fear that the Republican presidential primary might be a short-lived exercise in futility, with Donald Trump coasting to the nomination, putting him one step closer to retaking the presidency. In light of that anticlimactic (if plausible) scenario, it’s not wildly premature to ask an important question: What’s Joe Biden’s affirmative message?
Don’t get me wrong. It’s possible that Biden can win solely because he is not Trump. And if Team Biden resorts to going “full Hitler,” it’s only because Trump has invited the comparison. Still, the notion that the “Orange Man Bad” platform is the only trick up Biden’s sleeve does not instill confidence. Especially when Trump is leading in many polls, despite the airing of all his dirty laundry. We are left with the question: Why should anyone vote for Biden?
It turns out, this is a hard question to answer. Just last month, The Daily Mail published a survey asking voters to describe, in one word, what each of the frontrunners wanted to achieve in a second term. The name “Donald Trump” quickly evoked “revenge,” a finding that (for obvious reasons) drove most of the news coverage.
Much less attention was paid to the way voters described Biden: “Nothing.” This, The Daily Mail’s Rob Crilly reasonably concluded, suggests Biden “is failing to communicate a clear manifesto to voters.”
“Revenge” might not have the same uplifting charm as “Morning in America,” but at least Trump has an ethos. Biden, conversely, lacks a raison d’être.
If The Daily Mail’s survey doesn’t make Team Biden sit up and take notice, perhaps they should pay attention to Barack Obama’s former top adviser, David Axelrod, a man who has reportedly been called a “prick” by Biden, himself. (Disclosure: In 2018, I served as a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, which Axelrod founded, and directed at the time.)
For months now, Axelrod has been sounding the alarm about Biden’s re-election chances, leading some to accuse him of “bedwetting.” Yet to me (admittedly, I’m not a Democratic voter), Axelrod’s concerns seem warranted, and his most recent advice seems sincere.
Someone once told me that the definition of public relations is “doing good and getting credit for it.” In this regard, Biden’s biggest problem might just be that he cannot effectively lay claim to his accomplishments…
