We All Want To See The Last Of Trump. Would You Vote For A Corpse Instead Of Him? The Democratic Establishment Wants To Give You Just That Choice

Krystal: "Just ask yourself-- Is that the man you want leading this response to this crisis right now? If you're a person like me, you're looking at him, you're looking at Trump, you're going 'My God! What a choice is laid before us!' It's honestly horrifying."

Saagar: "This guy can get away with pretty much anything, as long as he just stays alive. That's all they want. He's like an empty husk to which the establishment can project whatever they want-- tax cuts, the Obama era neo-liberalism, continuing their grip, continuing the gate flow, all of that. That's what he represents. He's like an ideologically composed thing, of all of their wants and and wishes and dreams; and he's like a blank slate they can just write themselves onto. It's not for the people who think the system is screwed; it's not for people who think that what's happened in this country overs the last 40 years has been a complete and abject disaster. And the worst part is, he's just going to continue these interviews; he's going to continue to make a fool out of himself... completely bizarre and strange behavior and never once will he get asked a real question."

Do you want to know what Bernie wants to accomplish as president? Just look at his record (or look here at his platform). How about Biden's record? It's as bad as it could be and still belong to someone calling himself a Democrat-- racist, corporate, war-mongering. And why is Biden running for president again? Why not? It's all about ego and his desire to accomplish the one thing that has evaded insiders for decades-- a Grand Bargain to cut Social Security and Medicare. Biden thinks it will be the equivalent of Nixon's trip to China, something only a Republican could have achieved. Cutting Social Security and Medicare is something, he thinks, only a Democrat could get away with. Don't let him. Stop him now.

Vanity Fair's Chris Smith wrote yesterday how Democrats are playing right into Trump's hands by nominating Biden. Ole Status Quo Joe, he wrote "will need to find creative ways to expand his media presence for as long as the crisis lasts, and to regularly highlight President Donald Trump’s epic, lethal incompetence in dealing with the pandemic. Expecting Trump’s blunders to have political consequences all by themselves would be a huge mistake, as polls are already showing. 'That line of thinking drives me fucking nuts,' says Lis Smith, the strategist whose maximalist media tactics turned Pete Buttigieg into a surprisingly strong primary contender. 'Democrats always think that there’s going to be some divine intervention, that Trump will somehow self-destruct. That is a losing strategy. Biden can do a mix of national TV, local TV, Spanish-language TV, hit the phones, and do radio. But what’s really important in this moment is that the audience for this is not your typical political audience. It’s literally everyone. Sports podcasts would have him on. Entertainment podcasts would have him on. People are really hungry for information, they’re really hungry for facts, and they’re really hungry for leadership.'"

As Biden becomes more visible again, there is the risk-- actually, the likelihood-- that he will say goofy things along the way. The greater danger is that he gets drawn into a pissing match with Trump, something Trump is already trying to stoke. "The media also wants a fight, and we want the story to go on," says Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016 and now a contributor to The Circus on Showtime. "So the campaign needs to be somewhat wary of playing into that. But Super Tuesday showed that Biden has a deep reservoir of support and goodwill from voters, and not just with Democrats, because Independents and moderate Republicans voted for him too."

Biden himself shouldn’t be the one doing all the talking. His team has already taken some steps in this direction, releasing a coronavirus explainer video featuring a top aide, Ron Klain, who was in charge of President Barack Obama’s response to the Ebola threat. The Klain video has been viewed 4.3 million times online. “This is a different situation from the 2008 financial crisis, because Obama had been elected but not yet sworn in,” says Brian Fallon, a top strategist for Clinton in 2016. “But during the transition he did daily news conferences where he was trying to signal, ‘Hey, I got this.’ Obama was making news with the announcement of people he would be installing, or just answering questions about his priorities for a stimulus package and presenting a contrast with Bush. Biden could be creating a very favorable juxtaposition by assembling a shadow cabinet, convening the Ron Klains and the Zeke Emanuels of the world and doing almost a mirror image version of Trump’s press conferences in which Biden is saying, ‘Where are the damn tests?’ and laying the wood to Trump.”

Social distancing makes traditional retail campaigning impossible for the foreseeable future. Yet being stuck in Delaware gives Biden the chance to cover more ground, at least virtually, and to target his efforts. Of the six battleground states that are likely to decide the electoral college winner this November, four are led by Democratic governors. A Biden spokeswoman says the campaign will do nothing that might distract officials who are confronting life-and-death decisions at the moment. But at some point it would be wise for Biden to host a livestream with Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan to talk about the economic impact of the virus. Wisconsin has (thankfully) few cases right now, but Biden and Governor Tony Evers could discuss the need for vote-by-mail and the state’s legal fight over online registration. New York and California should be reliably blue this fall, but Biden sessions with governors Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom could generate a wealth of coverage.

“This is an opportunity to run an innovative virtual campaign, to reach people while they’re at home and they’re concerned. Media consumption patterns are way, way up, and people are listening,” says Ben LaBolt, who was national press secretary for Obama’s successful 2012 reelection campaign. “The question is whether or not Trump is actually digging himself into a hole. If you follow Twitter and read the Washington Post and the New York Times, you know that Trump started this crisis by denying its scope, by calling it a hoax, and saying everything is under control. But if you are someone who doesn’t follow politics closely, and you tune in to the briefing every day, which is aired by the cable networks without fact-checking, and Trump is saying that he’s doing a great job and he demands that everyone around him praise him, like he’s Kim Jong Un, then you might be getting a different impression of what’s going on.”

Biden’s inner circle, with a handful of exceptions, has been with him for decades. Fortuitously, Biden hired a new campaign manager just before the coronavirus shutdowns changed the game. Jen O’Malley Dillon had most recently run Beto O’Rourke’s primary effort; previously she was the battleground states director for Obama ’08 and deputy campaign manager for Obama ’12. “Jen is never satisfied about what you did or what worked in the last campaign,” Palmieri says. “She’s extraordinarily literate in all kinds of technology and new campaign methods. And Biden is going to need all of that, because what we used to think of as a politician setting himself on fire is how Trump thrives.”

She is probably right. But Biden’s appeal in 2020 has always been more as a concept than as an actual candidate: Primary voters decided he is the Democrats’ Best Chance to Beat Trump. It’s good that Biden is now becoming more visible again. His real goal, though, should be to survive undamaged until November. Just like the rest of us.

And anyone who really expects that, might want to look for an offer to buy a bridge connecting Manhattan to Boston. I'm sure Trump has some for sale. After all...






You always knew Trump would make us #1-- and now we are... numero uno in COVID-19 cases, more than China or Italy or Spain or anywhere. And it's just starting. It didn't have to be this way. If instead of Trump we had a remotely competent, less self-centered president-- and with a competent team instead of a pack of fish raters... well, then we would have taken precautions like every other country has. Instead insisting for weeks that it was all a Democratic hoax. As of today the U.S. has 81,321 known coronavirus cases. Donald McNeil wrote earlier today that "A series of missteps and lost opportunities dogged the nation’s response. Among them: a failure to take the pandemic seriously even as it engulfed China, a deeply flawed effort to provide broad testing for the virus that left the country blind to the extent of the crisis, and a dire shortage of masks and protective gear to protect doctors and nurses on the front lines, as well as ventilators to keep the critically ill alive... The United States, which should have been ready, was not. This country has an unsurpassed medical system supported by trillions of dollars from insurers, Medicare and Medicaid. Armies of doctors transplant hearts and cure cancer. The public health system, limping along on local tax receipts, kills mosquitoes and traces the contacts of people with sexually transmitted diseases. It has been outmatched by the pandemic."