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Does Biden Need to Do Anything Different to Win?
So far, the Democratic nominee’s relatively low-key strategy is working out just fine. Where does it go from here?
nymag.com
Does Biden Need to Do Anything Different to Win?
So far, the lack of standard politicking in recent months — or even at times, widespread visibility in the press — has not appeared to hurt Joe Biden’s presidential campaign at all. As the Democratic nominee widens his lead in national and state polls, I spoke with politics reporter Gabriel Debenedetti about Biden’s path forward.
Ben: Joe Biden is now leading comfortably in every reputable national survey and is doing remarkably well in the key swing states, too. Unless polling were off to a far larger degree than it was four years ago, he would romp if the election were held right now. At the beginning of the quarantine, there was quite a bit of concern that his relatively low-key strategy — a major part of which is sitting back and letting Trump self-destruct — was the wrong move. At the moment, it seems to be paying major dividends. In the coming weeks and even months, is there any incentive for Biden to do anything different from what he’s doing right now?
Gabriel: Sure, if only because the natural rhythm of a campaign isn’t a flat line through summer and fall. National- and state-level polls are a snapshot in time, but they also include a guess about what the electorate will look like in November, and that assumes a certain amount of expected activity from the parties and campaigns between now and then. Biden’s team will naturally ratchet up its organizing and get-out-the-vote activity as the fall approaches. He will also almost certainly keep increasing his presence on the trail, slowly — he’s said that’s his intention.
But I think there’s still a bit of a mismatch in a lot of the conversation around this question, between the talkers and the people setting Biden’s strategy. He has been low-key, yes, but those around him don’t think that’s necessarily why he’s winning, and their ultimate goal is to try and make his win as comfortable as possible. If they think he will have an even better chance of winning in November by amping up contrasts with Trump — whose disastrous spring and summer are undoubtedly primarily responsible for the size of his deficit — then of course he’ll come out into public more, to make that contrast clearer. They don’t actually think this whole campaign is 100% about Trump. Just … mostly.
The other piece of this, though, is that Biden has been open about believing strongly in modeling what leadership should look like, so he doesn’t want to get out there too much — we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, after all.
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