March 22, 2020

How Joe Biden Will Counteract Trump's Virus Media Circus

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-joe-biden-will-counteract-trumps-virus-media-circus?ref=wrap

"We need action, not words. We need science, not more fiction. Mr. President, start to tell the truth,” Joe Biden told reporters in a tele-conference on Friday.
Hanna Trudo Updated Mar. 21, 2020 3:44AM ET / Published Mar. 20, 2020 8:22PM ET

snip//

After days of relative quiet, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that he plans to hold daily press briefings, starting as early as Monday from a remote location, as part of a broader digital and communications push as he closes in on the Democratic nomination.

“We’ve hired a professional team to do that now,” Biden said in a teleconference with the press on Friday afternoon, in reference to a question about establishing a foil for Trump’s daily press briefings. “We’re in the process of setting up the mechanisms by which to do that.”

The announcement answers growing questions about whether Biden’s campaign would set up some type of shadow effort to counter President Donald Trump in the age of COVID-19. Those questions, and more specifically, whether they had a plan at all to match Trump’s increasingly erratic press conferences where he routinely contradicts experts, misstates facts, and paints a far rosier picture of a crisis that has upended American life, had gone largely unanswered until Friday.

“The bottom line is everything from providing access to where I physically live and being able to broadcast from there, as well as our headquarters, is underway," Biden said.

The stakes are now higher than ever for the former VP seeking to make both a values-based and tactical contrast to Trump. But as the country grapples with containing the spread of coronavirus, Biden is confronting challenges of a leading campaign trying to soldier on in the face of a national crisis.

Trying to counteract the narrative that Biden has "disappeared"--while publicly quiet until last Friday for a bit, Joe was working behind the scenes to muster up a response to the virus crisis to counter the Trump circus. Now he his ready to kick *** [expletive deleted].

March 22, 2020

Biden trashes Trump over coronavirus response: 'Step up and do your job, Mr. President'

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-trashes-trump-over-coronavirus-200510652.html
Adam Edelman ,NBC News•March 21, 2020

Snip//

Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic front-runner, slammed President Donald Trump over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic Friday, accusing him of being “behind the curve through his whole response.”

Biden, speaking on a conference call with reporters, offered a series of blunt missives for Trump, and criticized him for repeatedly providing the American people with misinformation about the virus.

“Step up and do your job, Mr. President,” Biden said.

“In times of crisis, the American people deserve a president who tells them the truth,” Biden said. “Unfortunately, President Trump has not been that president.”

“People are scared. They’re worried. They don’t know quite what to do," he added. “He has been behind the curve throughout this whole response."
***
The former vice president also criticized Trump for having directed governors to acquire critical medical supplies on their own, before relying on the federal government.

“Don’t tell the governors to fend for themselves,” Biden said. “Step up and do your job.”

“He said the federal government is not a shipping clerk. Where the hell did that come from,” Biden said.

Read more at the link. Cannot let Trump off the hook just b ecause he is president during a crisis. Where has Joe been? He has been on the phone working behind the scenes. Now, probably Monday, he will be giving a presidential press conference.

March 22, 2020

Biden seeks to offer a possible presidency preview

https://us.yahoo.com/gma/coronavirus-upends-2020-race-biden-seeks-offers-possible-080451017--abc-news-topstories.html

As the coronavirus upends the 2020 race, Biden seeks to offer a possible presidency preview
MOLLY NAGLE and JOHN VERHOVEK
Good Morning America March 22, 2020

snips//

Former Vice President former vice president Joe Biden appeared well on his way to the Democratic presidential nomination in the weeks before the COVID-19 virus essentially ground the party’s nominating contest to a screeching halt for the next few weeks amid postponed primaries.

However, the pandemic has also presented an opportunity for the former vice president to demonstrate the type of leadership he’s promised he would provide to voters for nearly a year with actions that preview a possible President Biden.

“I find myself, literally on the phone with my key advisors, medical advisors and economic advisors literally four or five hours a day, going through detailed memoranda on what we should be doing,” Biden said on a call for press Friday afternoon.

“My whole focus has basically been, how we deal with this crisis. And quite frankly, thus far has been less about how we campaign or make stark differences between the president and I. I think some are just self-evident, but the bottom line is that...my whole rationality here is to make sure that we focus on the urgent need of the American people,” Biden continued.

Biden’s campaign is now navigating how to take the leadership mantle on amid the global crisis, without the power and gravitas that comes with the title of ‘Commander in Chief -- a fact Trump’s election campaign is happy to point out.

Now we will see and hear what a real president is like!

March 19, 2020

Op-Ed: What others see as Joe Biden's mental slips, I see as the tricks of a master stutterer

You don’t notice Joe Biden’s stutter when he’s speaking most of the time. He didn't stutter during Sunday night’s debate, for example. But as a stutterer, I recognized the fingerprints of a master stutterer at work.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/op-ed-others-see-joe-100045858.html

Seeing Biden on stage takes me back to my childhood. I've watched him for years and recognize the familiar tricks. Noticed him struggling with a phrase or name he's uttered a million times before.

I've heard him use overly complicated or quirky phrasing and immediately recognized the method of a master stutterer: the almost savant-like ability to rephrase a thought or paragraph, on-the-fly, to avoid a problematic word or syllable.

I've listened to his critics and heard echoes of my past. He's senile, they insist. He forgot Obama's name. He's mentally defective. Dementia. But I know better.

At a campaign stop on March 5, Biden "forgot" Obama's name, identifying him simply as "the last guy." At other events he’s said, "President my boss." Some see this as evidence of a man losing his mental faculties. I see the familiar trick of calling a last-second audible for an easier syllable or phrase, the in-the-moment wordplay stutterers use to navigate their speech.

Stuttering is fickle. A word might come naturally the first million times, then get stuck without warning. So we make substitutions. Sometimes it's nicknames. Sometimes it's slang that sounds awkward or out-of-place, like Biden uses.

More at link

March 18, 2020

The Hill: Biden has broken all the 'rules' of presidential primaries

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/488162-biden-has-broken-all-the-rules-of-presidential-primaries

Snip//

A landslide in Florida, with the third-most Democratic convention delegates, and a decisive victory in Illinois, with the sixth-largest bloc, gives the former vice president a delegate lead of more than 300, and he'll rack up even more with a clear win in Arizona — a clean sweep.

***

The Biden turnaround, going from front-runner a year ago to a failed candidacy a month ago, to inevitable nominee today, is unprecedented in American politics.

Every rule I learned in covering presidential politics for almost a half century has been broken, including:

No one loses both Iowa and New Hampshire and wins the nomination. An also-ran in these first contests loses momentum, money and political support. Serious contenders failed miserably to jump start campaigns. For the Democrats in 1976, Sen. Henry Jackson skipped New Hampshire — and when Jimmy Carter won the Granite State, it effectively ended Jackson's hopes. In 2008, the early Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani — really he once was a serious person — figured he'd take off in the big Florida primary. But after John McCain won New Hampshire, support for “America’s Mayor” plummeted; he dropped out nine days before the Florida primary. Biden, however, finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and is now on his way to November.

Endorsements don’t really matter in the modern media age. Witness the last two presidents. In 2007, the establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton, cornered scores of high-level endorsements — far more than Barack Obama — to little avail. Four years ago, about the only top Republican to endorse Donald Trump was Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. (The president showed his sense of loyalty this month by endorsing Sessions' opponent in a primary.) Then there was Jim Clyburn. Joe Biden might have won the South Carolina primary last month anyway — but the eloquent endorsement of Rep. Clyburn, the most important African American office holder in the party, generated the Biden avalanche in South Carolina, carrying over to Super Tuesday three days later.

Money is the mother's milk of politics, especially if one candidate has a lot, the other very little. By Super Tuesday, Mike Bloomberg was spending more than a half a billion dollars, while Biden was too strapped to even have offices in some of the states in play. Biden won 10 of 14 states that day, picking up 632 delegates. Bloomberg won American Somoa. The “Big Mo” triumphed — momentum not money.

March 15, 2020

Sanders bets on Biden debate implosion--Will they never get over this disproven concept?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sanders-bets-biden-debate-implosion-110013843.html
By Holly Otterbein ,Politico•March 15, 2020

snip//

Virtually the entire Democratic presidential primary has been predicated on one underlying assumption: the eventual collapse of Joe Biden.

More than a dozen of his erstwhile opponents bet their campaigns on it, and he’s proven them all wrong. But his last serious opponent standing, Bernie Sanders, is still clinging to the same belief — and that it will finally happen on Sunday night, under the bright lights of their one-on-one debate.
***“I don’t know if you’ve seen Joe Biden lately, but he doesn’t like to be told he’s wrong,” said a Sanders adviser. “We’re going to take him on around the issues and make him defend his record. He’s deflected on those in earlier debates because there’s so much chatter happening on the stage. But when you’re one-on-one, you change the dynamic.”

So I guess the theory is that if you stick it in Joe's face, he is going to implode, sort of like how he handled some hecklers I guess. Bernie's advisors worry that Sanders won't go for the throat because he has a soft sj
pot for friends. They are also hoping the coronavirus pandemic will focus voters on the health care issue proposed by Sanders, but the outbreak so far has favored Biden it seems. At any rate they are hoping for a seismic shift and an improbable comeback.

Steady as it goes Joe. Keep the ship on course and avoid the shoals right and left.
It is not the awesome plume of the nuke, but the shock wave on the ground that brings the force to bear. Joe has the votes on the ground on Tuesday, he will win the debate!
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( <Biden> ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

March 14, 2020

Fox News Host Shuts Down Guests for Politicizing Biden's Coronavirus Speech

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fox-news-host-shuts-down-183203203.html
Matt Wilstein ,The Daily Beast•March 13, 2020

snips//

After showing viewers Biden’s address in full, Fox News host Harris Faulkner welcomed her “power panel” with a warning. “Politics aside, and we’re going to have to do that with COVID-19, we just are,” she began, “what would you say is the main takeaway from what the administration that Joe Biden says he would do?”

Plante and his left-leaning counterpart Ethan Bearman started shouting over each other, accusing each other of telling lies and generally devolving into a typical cable news food fight argument.

But this time was different. “Gentlemen, please!” Faulkner exclaimed. “You know what, I don’t find this helpful right now,” she said calmly and the two men continued to spiral out of control.

“COVID-19 on the horizon, that’s what we’re focused on right now,” Faulkner said. “And I want both of you to focus in.” As they both chuckled uncomfortably, she continued, “I understand that politics are the game, but the bigger umbrella here is that people are watching for answers.”
***
Faulkner tried once more to give her guests a chance to discuss the differences in approach by Trump and Biden in a reasonable manner, saying that the American people will have to decide for themselves “what is best when they go to the polls in November....”

The are looking at a Biden administration. Joe's speech was a ground breaker moment.

Now on to the GE, wiping up the primary stuff along the way.

March 13, 2020

DAILY BEAST: Biden Speech Was Designed to Look Presidential. It Worked.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-coronavirus-speech-was-designed-to-look-presidential-it-worked?ref=wrap
Hanna Trudo
Published Mar. 12, 2020 WILMINGTON, Delaware—

It was the speech Joe Biden needed to deliver.

Lining up over an hour, a pack of reporters stood in close proximity waiting to enter an ornate room at Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington to hear the former vice president attempt to do the opposite of what President Donald Trump offered the night before: an image of “strong, steady, and capable leadership” to address the coronavirus pandemic.

The venue befitted a presidential hopeful: panels of thick navy-blue velour curtains hung, neatly pressed, behind five large American flags, each with a tiny gold eagle perched on the mast. Shiny six-bulb candelabras outfitted the walls next to more drapery. In a certain light, it could have been the White House.

Just 30 minutes after he was scheduled to appear (due to technical sound problems at the location), Biden emerged serious in tone, getting straight to the topic at hand. The day after Trump detailed his administration’s response to coronavirus—which, in the immediate aftermath, led to public confusion about travel restrictions from Europe—Biden stood still, using Covid-19, the name of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, throughout his remarks.

“Downplaying it, being overly dismissive, or spreading misinformation is only going to hurt us,” Biden said, mentioning Trump by name about 3 minutes into his speech. “Let me be crystal clear: the coronavirus does not have a political affiliation.”

Then he gave a sweeping statement about the future: “No president can promise to prevent future outbreaks but I can promise you this: when I’m president, we will be better prepared, respond better and recover better. We will lead with science,” he added at another juncture.

The address, largely non-political in nature, provided Biden’s strongest contrast to a general election matchup against Trump to date. Having secured frontrunner status in the Democratic primary after a series of wins across the map, Biden sought to position himself as the most capable executive to address a public health crisis of global magnitute. Only occasionally mentioning the president (“unfortunately, this virus laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current administration,” he said at one point), and generally talking up the merits of science, global partnerships, and “bold, compassionate leadership,” the former vice president reverted his familiar role of consoler in chief, weighing heavily on uniting the country against the virus.

“It will touch people in positions of power, as well as the most vulnerable in our society,” Biden said.

The Democratic frontrunner took a considerable portion of his speech to unveil his new plan to address the growing coronavirus threat. The proposal calls for an “effective” national emergency response to minimize its spread, and proposes eliminating cost barriers for prevention of and care. It also calls for pursuing options to help “hard-hit workers, families, and small businesses and to stabilize the American economy.”

Speaking for just under 30 minutes, Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also called for America to lead a global response, again pivoting only occasionally to point out the need to “rebuild American leadership” that he contended has deteriorated under Trump’s administration.

“Labeling Covid-19 a ‘foreign virus’ does not displace accountability for the misjudgments that have been taken thus far by the Trump administration,” he said. [Well, this morning Trump tweeted it was all Obama's fault.]

On Wednesday, Biden’s campaign announced it was forming a public health advisory committee to “minimize health risks for the candidate, staff, and supporters,” composed of doctors and a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, among other experts. It also said that it will hold virtual events in lieu of physical ones out of an abundance of caution to minimize risk. On Friday, he will hold a virtual town hall with community members in Illinois.

March 12, 2020

Steady as it goes, Joe! Reasons not to steer left to appease Bernie supporters.

It is simple reasoning:

1. A certain number of Sanders' supporters willnot vote at all, NO MATTER WHAT!
2. A certain number of Sanders' supporters will not vote for Biden, NO MATTER WHAT!
3. A large number of Sanders' supporters and voters are patriotic Americans who want to beat Trump and will switch to Biden, NO MATTER WHAT.
4. Steering Left will alienate more moderate Dems, independents and others who will vote Biden, but NOT No Matter What! S

Steady as it goes, Joe. We will tRumps Rump like a drum!

March 9, 2020

Democrates United: Great Poster--UPDATED adding Booker (Pardons to original artist!)

Posted by Shannon White in "?Democrats for Joe Biden 2020"
https://www.facebook.com/groups/818490081841543/



Original