https://christianchronicle.org/ousted-by-democrats-longtime-lawmaker-and-minister-fights-for-his-political-life/

Democrats oust black (former Democratic) representative Rep. John DeBerry Jr.

DeBerry made comments condemning violent protests this week.

Not only does that sound like a pretty delusional take to me, but that’s the type of excuse the left would jump all over someone on the right for making about Trump. They’re not “keeping expectations low” they’re already there. The establishment left realized long ago, that whatever Biden had in his prime, which to his credit was, ya know, somewhat impressive, is long gone. They quickly realized that the less they have Biden in public & in front of a camera, answering organic non-pre-scripted questions, the better. This is evident based upon the fact that they’re not letting him do any of those things mentioned above. Trump has live campaign rallies that sell out stadiums & talks, not reads a script, for an hour straight, all the time, Biden doesn’t do that. Trump will sit in front of a group of reporters fielding questions for half an hour. Biden doesn’t do that. Trump’s campaign is pushing for more debates, Biden’s is pushing for less or even none. They want Biden in public speaking off the cuff as little as possible, & it’s readily apparent why to anyone who listens to Biden speak when he’s not reading a script.

Trump is pushing more debates because he's losing quite badly right now. That's a common strategy because it gives you more opportunities to change trends. Biden isn't pushing for less or zero, they are pushing for what always has been (3).

It's not a matter of "they aren't letting him." It's a matter of campaign strategy. Trump keeps shooting himself in the foot so why would Biden want to divert attention away from that? THAT would be stupid. What's the consensus of the Biden and Trump speeches? Biden's was the best of his career and even Foxnews said it was great. The reality is all he did was read from a teleprompter. Consensus of Trump's? Long, repetitive, and basically the same as 2016. Some are even calling it low energy. It seems to me that the strategy is working quite well.

You bring up an interesting point regarding campaign strengths. Bernie and Trump EXCEL at large rallies because they feed off their supporters and their supporters love it. Someone like Biden excels at small campaign events/town halls. Someone like Harris excels in confrontation. Someone like Buttigieg excels at the "lecture format." You always need to play to your strengths.

Why give Trump and his propagandists in the media material to work with? Biden's always been gaffe prone... so any slip up can take the media spotlight away from Trump. All Biden needs to do is present himself as competent in big moments. He did fine in the debate with Bernie, he had a good convention speech, and he'll most likely do fine in the debates. Those will be the moments people remember him by. The rest of the airwaves will be clogged with Trump's ridiculousness.

Both candidates damage themselves by being out in public. Only one candidate has the self-discipline to stay inside and shut up.

Because I don't think Biden can win at this rate. Biden's poll numbers started improving rapidly as the pandemic took off. Now that the it's stabilizing, Trump's numbers are coming back. Biden's battleground lead is at 3.0 points (down from 6.3 at peak) and dropping. The betting markets have gone from a 2:1 advantage to even money.

If Biden doesn't change the narrative of the race, people will compare what they have today against the radical street violence that the Democrats in power have been telling us we need more of.

And I've been saying since the pandemic took off in late March that not being able to hold mass rallies would be a huge blow to the Trump campaign, and thus a huge strategical advantage for Biden. Which ties into the point I've been making all along that Biden is actually a really subpar candidate who got bailed out by the pandemic.




Biden did horribly in town hall heavy states during the primary, finishing 4th in Iowa and 5th in NH.

That's not necessarily a good indicator of his strength I think because there are other factors at play (caucus organization, demographics, etc.) A better indicator would be how well voters enjoyed seeing Biden in those states. Biden's specialty is building personal connections with people which is why I said town hall was a strength.

I'm not sure what you mean by subpar. Does voter intensity really matter? Do you HAVE to be good at rallies to win? Do you HAVE to be charismatic? To me, outside of excellent campaign organization, a good candidate is simply being able to exploit the weaknesses of your opponent so that changes from election to election. I think there are qualities that are ALWAYS helpful i.e. being able to handle media correctly but I think that's more of a necessary as opposed to sufficient condition.

This post was edited by thundercock on Aug 28 2020 02:51pm

Aside from high name recognition and being an inoffensive white man, Biden has no actual qualities as a candidate. Not a good orator, not charismatic, not particularly sharp/witty (anymore), no strong policies or platform, low energy, a gaffe machine.

His ability to be a consensus and bridge builder might be the only argument in his favor, but that's more an argument for him being a decent president than being a good campaigner.

Sounds great to me. Maybe America should pick candidates like this every time... instead of going with the biggest loudmouth or the one whose words send a thrill up our leg, we choose someone who has experience, character, and the ability to compromise.

People pick who inspires them or gets them angry in the right way. Unfortunately that hasn't led to good governance. America showed up in 2016 and chose their favorite pundit.