I’ve read and heard a ton of full-throated, passionate calls today for Joe Biden to stay in the race and aggressive chastising of any and all that are calling for him to step aside. As someone who does not feel this way, I nonetheless have a tremendous amount of respect for this viewpoint. Joe has been a great President and has earned that kind of loyalty. However, when the argument moves from who should be the nominee to how we actually beat Trump, the President’s staunch supporters are ignoring what must necessarily be the lynchpin of any larger strategy: relentless campaigning by the nominee. There is simply no substitute for this in electoral politics. Never has been, never will be. Former Obama Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer had this to say on the latest Pod Save America:
“Because we’ve had two geriatric presidents running against each other for a few years now, we’ve lost the thread of what a normal campaign looks like. When you’re running for President, you wake up in the morning...you do interviews...you do drive time radio in battleground markets across the country. Then you get up and do a first rally. Then you go to the next site and do another rally. Then you sit for an hour and do satellite global television interviews...That’s what you have to do...Then you do a third rally...you’re doing fundraising calls in the car, on the plane. There’s a cadence to this that Donald Trump cannot keep up with, but we know Kamala Harris or any other Democratic candidate could.”
Dan didn’t even mention print interviews, the clutches that are a part of every rally, the fact that each rally happens in different a different city in a different states, in person fundraising commitments etc. Do you want to really change the current narrative about the President stepping down? This is how you do it. This is how you campaign for President and win. I’d argue the actual day-to-day campaigning becomes even more important when you are trying to make up a deficit, and infinitely more important when the chief question surrounding you is to what extent you are experiencing age-related decline.
Regardless of who you want to be the nominee, this is the sacrifice we must demand of that individual in order to meet this moment. If President Biden is up for it, great. I’m in. He is the presumptive nominee and I recognize that. So when does he start in earnest? What radio interviews in battleground states did he do today? I understand he has COVID. Should that have precluded him giving radio/satellite TV interviews? It is the day after the Republican convention. We need his voice, not just a statement put out on social media. What does he have planned tomorrow? What does his campaign schedule look like next week when he will reportedly return to the campaign trail? Is it sufficiently robust to start turning the ship in the right direction?
I completely understand that President Biden’s supporters would like to see Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Sharrod Brown, John Tester, Adam Schiff, George Clooney, Pod Save America, etc. spend their time prosecuting the case against Trump, instead of calling on him to step aside. I agree it would sound a lot better around here. The band may sound nice when it’s all playing together, but if the lead singer doesn’t show up it isn’t going to move the crowd.
You’re kidding yourself if you think the key missing ingredient is the party coalescing around the President. It might help, but it isn’t getting us over the line. The candidate must be able to make the case. Consistently. Relentlessly. If President Biden is not prepared to campaign in the manner that is required to meet this moment, he ought to step aside in favor of someone who can. If he’s in it to win it, then can we please get the show on the road?