Wasn’t it the rule that the first campaign to go negative was exhibiting a sign of weakness? The Biden campaign fits the bill. Unlike the Republican Party, which is unifying under Donald Trump, the Democratic Party has multiple factions at odds with Joe Biden. They’re all potential election killers if there’s no turnaround, but there’s plenty of time for Biden’s team to quell the angst among black, Hispanic, Muslim American, and labor union voters. Does Joe have the skill and mental acuity to pull this off? He doesn’t.
The 2024 Biden playbook for Trump is a retread of Obama’s plan against Mitt Romney: kill Trump. The president intends to go for Trump’s “jugular” by mocking him every day (via Axios):
President Biden is privately pushing for a much more aggressive approach to 2024: Go for Donald Trump's jugular.
Why it matters: Biden is convinced he'll rattle Trump if he taunts him daily.
Biden has told friends he thinks Trump is wobbly, both intellectually and emotionally, and will explode if Biden mercilessly gigs and goads him — "go haywire in public," as one adviser put it.
Other sources tell us that Biden is looking for a fight.
Biden's instincts tell him to let it fly when warning about the consequences of Trump winning the presidency again. Biden told The New Yorker that Trump would refuse to admit losing, again.
Between the lines: The "trigger Trump" approach would be a departure from a traditional Rose Garden re-election campaign.
Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy — areas in which polls suggest Americans aren't giving Biden much credit — Biden would be making the contest as much about Trump as his own accomplishments.
One potential upside: It would help assuage concerns about Biden's age by showing that at 81, he can still throw a Scranton punch.
Wait, Biden thinks Trump is wobbly, says the man who can’t remember when his son died. You need to be cogent to pull this off, and Biden has mixed up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt, along with a host of other European leaders, some of whom are dead. All Biden needs to do is stop being creepy, not fall asleep in the Oval Office during photo opportunities, and not mumble at the podium. He can’t do that—he’s old. Everyone knows he’s old and can see he can’t do the job.
How Trump responds will be interesting. If he takes the bait, Biden could turn some aspects of his failing campaign around. Yet, if Trump is restrained, highlights Biden’s failures, and pivots—Biden’s plan could fall flat, like his presidency. Trump can easily say Joe is afraid of him because he has a disastrous record and a corrupt family business, which is why they’re all attacking him.
I’ve already been attacked enough by people far worse—get back to your shuffleboard, Joe. Or, maybe not, because you’ll fall over.
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