Democrats are pathetic when it comes to blowing elections. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and blinder-bound Team Joe acolytes have circled the wagons. That’s Biden’s reward for making Donald Trump look good.
Biden defenders tell us that one bad debate doesn’t matter. Maybe it shouldn’t matter, but it’s an abuse of history to say it doesn’t. Democrats should know better. An old friend brought up the 1960 debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, the so- called “first television debate.” Nixon had been ill, refused to use any makeup, and appeared on camera looking like an extra for a zombie movie. Those listening on the radio thought Nixon won the debate, but TV was the forum of the future.
We can bemoan the dumbing down of American politics, but 1960 paved the way for impressionistic campaigns. In 1964, the slain Kennedy’s former Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, faced off against Barry Goldwater. Even before that debate Johnson’s Democratic team engaged in downright dirty politics. If you don’t know it, check out LBJ’s “Daisy” ad. In the first debate, Johnson painted Goldwater as a dangerous extremist and he never recovered.
Four years later, Nixon got his revenge. In debate he painted LBJ’s Veep, Hubert Humphrey, as a key player in bollixing the Vietnam War. The “New Nixon” promised he had a “secret plan” to end the war. That was as dishonest as most of what he did, but Humphrey did not shed the allegation that he was LBJ’s right-hand flunky. Nor could Eugene McCarthy manage to convince voters that he was more than a one-trick pony in 1972, though Nixon was already perceived as crooked.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter managed to turn what pollsters said would be a close election into a Ronald Reagan rout. Carter came off as a stern school master. Reagan spouted nostrums and hokum, but he was sunny and avuncular. When the dust settled, Carter won just five states. Four years later, Reagan did to Walter Mondale what Nixon did to Humphrey. Mondale won only his native Wisconsin and that by a razor thin margin. If you like irony, Reagan was 73 when reelected, which made him the oldest person to win the presidency–until Biden! Reagan was a whopping nine years younger than Joe will be in November.
Let’s jump ahead to 1988, when George H. W. Bush tarred Mike Dukakis as an elitist liberal. Both were questionable, but it’s stunning that George “Born with a Silver Spoon in His Mouth” who grew up in Connecticut and Kennebunkport, Maine, and attended Yale could convince anyone he wasn’t an elitist. The Duke was just 55, but Bush I eviscerated him.
In 1992, though, Bill Clinton uttered four words in a debate over the economy that catapulted him to the presidency: “I feel your pain.” In ’96 Bob Dole ran against Clinton and lost because he never made it stick that the impeachment trial against Bonkin’ Bill was about anything other than sex–despite the fact that Clinton committed perjury.
Bush the younger won in 2000, partly because Al Gore failed to prove he wasn’t as boring as summer re-runs. Bush II won again four years later when the Democrats nominated John Kerry, a dyed-in-the-wool elitist who managed to make Gore seem exciting by contrast.
I thrilled to Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012 but let’s not pretend his campaign was all about substance. He hammed Dole in ’08 on the unpopular Iraq war and Sarah Palin’s gaffes. Romney played Al Gore in 2012 and bland seldom unseats an incumbent POTUS. I think you know what happened in 2016 and 2020. If you don’t think Hillary came off an elitist and Trump as a pompous jerk versus Blue-Collar Biden, pass me some of what you’ve been drinking.
The moral is clear: Millions of voters go by their gut not by their undereducated heads. To use marketing language, Biden has damaged his brand and calling Zelensky “President Putin” a few days ago is another nail in his coffin. If the DNC can’t cut him loose–something the rank and file has demanded–the only obstacle to the Return of Lord Voldemort is self-destruction.
Rob Weir
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