Contrasting Trump vs Biden campaign strategies
Fox News contributor Rachel Campos Duffy delves into the tale of two campaigns: Joe Biden campaigning from his basement while President Trump holds counter-campaign events.
The Democrat convention kicks off Monday.
With no hint of irony, Democrats have titled their event, “Uniting America.” How will they unite America when they can’t even bring their own party together? And when, over the next four days, they will spew nothing but hatred and vitriol about President Donald Trump, who is supported by roughly 45% of the nation?
Democrats and their partners in the liberal media will pretend their party is enthusiastically unified behind their ticket. They are not. Young Black voters, in particular, are not on board with Joe Biden.
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Overall, Pew reports that only 42% of Democrats are “very” or “fairly” satisfied with the choice of candidates this year; that’s lower than when Hillary Clinton ran in 2016.
That’s why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the firebrand congresswoman from New York who thoroughly rattles Establishment Democrats, is allowed only a 60-second prerecorded sound bite at the convention, even though she has a huge, young following. Party officials are scared to death the Democratic Socialist might alarm moderate voters, and for good reason.
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Instead of yielding AOC the floor, party officials have scheduled a few marquee speakers, like former first lady Michelle Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and some controversial picks like Jeffrey Epstein pal former President Bill Clinton, but have otherwise stuffed the program with snoozers like Hillary Clinton (from whom we have really heard more than enough), Al Gore, John Kerry, Lisa Blunt Rochester (?) and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
Democrats admire Yates because she was fired by Trump for insubordination early in his tenure, a real badge of honor.
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More recently, she developed amnesia when asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee whether Joe Biden, during a 2017 Oval Office meeting, suggested incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn be investigated for violating the Logan Act. Responding “I can’t remember” probably earned her a spot at the convention.
Spoiler alert: Democrats can’t really bridge the gap between the Biden Left and Sanders Far-Left. Instead, they plan to unify their party by spending the hours between now and Thursday night lambasting President Donald Trump as a terrible, terrible person and even worse president.
That’s what they’ve got. That’s what their voters want.
Polling shows Democrats are much more excited to oust Trump than elect his opponent; a recent Pew survey shows 56% of Biden supporters say their top reason for voting for the former VP is “He is not Trump.” That sentiment will not drive turnout.
Meanwhile, Biden’s announcement that Sen. Kamala Harris of California would join his ticket appears to have provided at best a fractional boost to his lead over President Trump.
The biggest challenge for Democrats, though, is that the tide is moving in Trump’s favor.
On the cusp of the Democrat convention, the president had a very good week. Top of the chart was the landmark deal establishing relations between the UAE and Israel. Try as they may, the liberal press cannot diminish the importance of this achievement.
Democrats remain mum about the horrific crime wave that is driving residents to flee some of our biggest cities.
Forming alliances between the Gulf Arab states and Israel creates a formidable bulwark against Iran, the most dangerous and anti-American provocateur in the region. While the Obama-Biden administration undermined our relationship with Israel to promote a disingenuous outreach to Iran, pretending that President Hassan Rouhani might work to normalize relations with the U.S. when they knew better, the Trump administration has strengthened our support of the Jewish state and begun to bring Arab nations along.
It is hoped that other countries, like Bahrain and Oman, will also establish ties to Israel. The breakthrough represents a formidable piece of diplomacy.
Last week also saw COVID cases declining 4% and unemployment claims tumbling below one million for the first time since March, raising hopes that the dire impact of the virus is beginning to fade. Housing is accelerating and June real retail sales rose 0.5% from June, indicating a quarter-to-quarter 50% annualized gain in the third quarter, economists say.
More and more, to the horror of Democrats, it looks like the country is recovering at a faster rate than expected from the virus shutdown. An indication of how powerfully the media is trying to scuttle this message comes from a recent survey in which 62% of Americans say the economy is poor, while at the same time 65% say that their own personal finances are good. That only makes sense if the press is overstating the gloom, which they are.
Meanwhile, Democrats remain mum about the horrific crime wave that is driving residents to flee some of our biggest cities. Democrats and their liberal media allies may not care about the increased looting and gunplay that are making our streets and neighborhoods unsafe, but most Americans do, and so does President Trump.
That’s why New York’s Police Benevolent Association, which represents about 24,000 rank-and-file officers, endorsed the president’s reelection bid last week. The head of the union, who stated that their members were under attack, said he could not remember another time in the past 36 years that the union had endorsed a candidate for president, and praised the president for being “one strong voice speaking up in our defense.” This, while Democrats on the Left push to “defund the police” even in cities like Minneapolis where crime has surged.
Then there was the announcement that Harris would be Biden’s running mate, a choice so fraught with issues that nervous Democrat-aligned groups felt obliged to instruct the media on how to report on the candidate.
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Lastly, we have Joe Biden, who spent yet another week literally hiding from voters while his wife and surrogates met with donors, and who continues to decline any meaningful interviews for fear he will reveal … what? That he is actually suffering dementia or that he doesn’t believe in the progressive agenda he has endorsed to please the Bernie Sanders crowd?
Yes, Trump had a good week. Most likely, he’s about to have another one.
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