Liz Peek: Trump and dropping poll numbers force Hidin' Biden to do this

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Kenosha violence alters campaign

Media focus on shooting, GOP on riots.

Joe Biden’s campaign is an insult to the American people. 

Did he and his handlers really imagine that the former vice president could compete for the highest office in the land while cowering in his basement and refusing the scrutiny of a challenging press? Did they seriously think it was appropriate for the candidate to turn his campaign over to his wife and now his running mate Kamala Harris? 

Last month, the former VP sat for only 10 television interviews, nine of which were with local small stations. The other was a sit-down with fawning Joy Reid of MSNBC. He has done not one of the hard-hitting Sunday shows, preferring to appear on late-night comedy hours instead.  

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He has also refused to take follow-up questions from the press invited to (briefly) attend his numerous fund-raisers. 

The Biden camp expects us to believe that COVID-19 is to blame for Biden’s invisibility. They hope we will imagine that, even as the rest of the nation gets back to work and back to school, the Democrat candidate is uniquely vulnerable. 

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As Joe might say, “C’mon man.”   

Maybe his campaign strategists would argue that Biden has been in the public eye for 47 years, making him a known commodity. That speaking to the public was unnecessary. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Biden has over the decades been on every side of many issues. On the Hyde Amendment, law and order, trade deals, the threat posed by China – he has flip-flopped big time and most recently he has bolted Left, hoping to win over disgruntled progressives who think they’ve been stiffed once again by the Establishment. 

Voters really do need to know what Biden 2020 stands for. The Democratic Convention surely didn’t give many clues. The four-day slog was all about Joe’s empathy and President Trump’s many flaws; there was almost no discussion about policy. 

True, polling shows that most Democrats will be voting against Trump, and not for Biden, but even so. 

Trump and his Republican allies have now, finally, successfully flushed the Democrat candidate out of hiding; the nation should be grateful. Biden has announced that he will venture forth, planning visits to swing states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona. 

Voters are not pleased by the riots taking place in many of our cities, and they hold Democrats responsible, as well they should.  

But not right away. He will wait until after Labor Day, allowing yet another 10 days to pass before he undertakes this Big Step. Note to Biden: there are only nine weeks until the election. Normal campaigns view every day as precious.  

Americans should evaluate Biden’s reluctance to face voters. There are many who speculate that the candidate is not up to the kind of verbal sparring required by an inquiring media or that Biden lacks the energy for a strenuous run. 

Such concerns may or may not be valid, but it should be equally concerning that Biden will emerge from his bolt-hole only after being prodded by Trump and by voices in his own party.   

Is that the kind of president we want? Someone who has to be pushed into action? 

The mostly virtual Democratic National Convention took place in toss-up state Wisconsin, but instead of showing up at that slimmed-down gathering, the candidate delivered his acceptance speech from his hometown in Delaware. 

The Trump campaign erected billboards around the Badger State asking “Where’s Joe?” as the president traveled there and called out his opponent for “disrespecting” voters by not showing up. 

An article in The Hill recently quoted several Democrat strategists worrying aloud about the former VP’s lack of travel. One Biden fundraiser was quoted saying, “I hate it. Why can’t he go visit a factory in Wisconsin? Why can’t he go to Minnesota for a few hours?”  

Why, indeed. 

Most likely, it was neither the digs from Trump nor from his own party that has Biden at long last packing his bags. Instead, he has been jolted into action by polls that show three things: 

A recent CNBC poll indicated that Americans in the battleground states are becoming less anxious about the coronavirus, while approval of Trump’s handling of the virus has risen. This makes sense, as the number of new cases and deaths in the U.S. have been declining for weeks, while the approach of a vaccine is promising. Since this was the number one campaign issue for Biden, any lessening of COVID fear is a problem.  

Voters are not pleased by the riots taking place in many of our cities, and they hold Democrats responsible, as well they should.  

The race is tightening, discouraging Democrat optimism that Biden could waltz unimpeded into the Oval Office. Specifically, Joe Biden’s lead in the swing states that will decide the election, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, has steadily declined, and now stands at below three points. A month ago he was ahead by more than six points.  

Drooping polls are not only booting him from his basement, but they have also reportedly forced from Biden recent statements mildly condemning the riots and violence that have shaken so many Democrat-led cities.  

CNN’s Don Lemon pleaded on air for the former VP to take a stand, noting that polling and “focus groups” indicated he needed to speak out. During the entire Democrat convention, neither Biden nor anyone else rebuked those “mostly peaceful” protesters who have burned buildings and attacked cops.   

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Shame on him. People are dying in those riots, thousands of businesses have been ruined, hundreds of cops have been injured. Americans should ask, how can Joe Biden keep us safe if he won’t even speak out against rioters?  

How can Joe Biden keep us safe if he’s afraid to leave his basement? 

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