Consumers have tiny attention spans, and can barely tell the difference between tv shows, reality and Tik Tock. Some of the younger congressional Democrats have learned this and are doing the best to use the media to humiliate the opposition, but it’s mainly only seen on CSPAN and YouTube. Trump, either by clever analysis or more likely craven narcissism, has sussed this and figured out that any way he can get his fat ass on the news every single day and multiple times, it’s a win for him, whether he’s lying incoherently to his followers or standing outside his own court trial after sleepfarting.
President Biden, I believe, needs to show real dogged determination, and that will require giving in and accepting the ground he must battle on. He needs to get out there and fight every day. If he gaffs, then he must come back the next day and give them something else to write about and ponder, to capture the next news cycle and erase the last. It’s all about engagement and sheer willpower. Flood the zone with Biden, every single day until the election.
This is what it has come to. There is no fighting it. President Biden did a great job in Cleveland after the debate. He was out there showing emotion and attitude, and there were visibly large amounts of people shouting and applauding in rousing agreement. That’s the most effective way to rehabilitate his image after this body blow. He needs to bravely keep telling the truth about Donald Trump and his corrupt regime that includes the Supreme Court, sycophants in congress, Project 2025, his copious criminal indictments, and so on. He could bring up a different topic every day, or keep harping on the same ones. He could split his time between being folksy and self-deprecating, and talking about his accomplishments or he could be warning and terrifying us about the impending Orban-esque takeover. Either way, he’s out there doing it, showing his face.
But what about his presidential duties, all the foreign policy emergencies that can and will explode with Israel, Putin, Ukraine, China and so on? That’s an important exception. When there is a need for him to go do this vital presidential work then that takes priority. But it also gets him into the news cycle in a positive way. And on those days when there are lesser emergencies, he has other competent people to delegate to, including Vice President Kamala Harris. The tragic truth is he is not going to win this election with more great personal accomplishments, even ones that help the majority of the electorate. There’s no doubt the battle that is going on with fascist MAGA in the GOP must be fought every day. But the historical aura of the White House is not enough, especially after Trump shat on it for four plus years. He needs to accept that nothing is as important as selling himself and what he has already done and will do to the voters in his party and the undecideds. The understandably afraid but easily manipulated media, even those that aren’t pro-Trump, are falling into the trap of judging him by one debate and piling on from there.
And anyone that thinks he should step down and let some potentially more vibrant person take over, remember this: that wonderful, imaginary fill-in-candidate, if they existed, would not be president nor have the mantle of incumbent, and Trump for all his chamber of horrors time in office can at least claim to have done the job. Even if it was Vice President Kamala Harris, she still would not have the requisite experience, unless President Biden quit and made her president. That would also make Biden, who has beaten Trump in the past, a quitter in the eyes of the world, and Kamala someone with only a few months on the presedential job desperately trying to play catch up with little time to campaign. What could possibly go wrong?