Following his disastrous performance at the June 27 presidential debate, Joe Biden and his allies have been in panic mode to salvage his candidacy. Dozens of high-profile Democrat leaders and donors have called for POTUS to step aside. To stay ahead of the clamor, the incumbent has embarked on a series of media appearances. But with yesterday's announcement of a new COVID infection that caused the incumbent to cancel a much-needed event in Las Vegas, one wonders how effective this media blitz will really be.
The president insists he’s not leaving the race, but lackluster polls aren’t giving the Democratic Party much confidence. Capturing the necessary 270 electoral votes is becoming less likely for Biden, especially as he faces an uphill battle in the Sun Belt states and key battlegrounds like North Carolina.
Biden’s Multiple Media Appearances
To emphasize that he’s still firmly in the race and to get Americans more excited about his campaign, Biden’s team recently launched a media blitz in key states. A $50 million media and ad spending spree across the Midwest and Sun Belt, including crucial states like Nevada, is part of an effort to curtail Trump’s surging polls and popularity. Even Minnesota and New Hampshire are expected to be close races rather than shoe-ins for Biden.
In addition to heavy spending and flooding states with staffers, Biden’s team has put POTUS front and center in many interviews and mainstream media appearances. This jam-packed schedule included an NBC interview on July 15 with Lester Holt, followed by several others.
Biden has been trying to find his media legs and get out of permanent vacation mode, hosting a dinner with NATO allies on July 10 (where he introduced Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”) and holding a press conference on July 11. Recently, Biden has made all manner of campaign pit stops, saying hi to supporters in a Pennsylvania cafe and a Detroit restaurant, and even chatting with the Houston Chronicle.
As former Obama White House aide and popular podcaster Jon Lovett recently noted of the dilemma facing Biden:
“Everyone is saying, why isn’t he out there, why isn’t he out there, why isn’t he out there? He goes out there, and he offers this middling performance and it ends up being the absolute worst of both worlds.”
In a recent interview with Philadelphia’s WURD radio, Biden said, “I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.” This, despite the questions from WURD being pre-scripted and arranged with the Biden campaign. And he still couldn’t get it right.
Will Biden’s Media Blitz Lead to a Comeback?
The short answer is, highly unlikely. Media appearances aren’t hard to book when you’re the commander-in-chief, but they have limited potential to draw in new voters, especially in an age when many opinions and trends are formed online. Polling already shows Trump pulling ahead sharply in the wake of the unsuccessful assassination attempt on him in Butler, PA, on July 13. While Trump is coming across as strong and resolute - even to his critics - Biden appears hesitant, sleepwalking, and impaired.
Even The New York Times recently ran a column by veteran Democratic political adviser and consultant Doug Sosnik acknowledging the president's tough road ahead. With the headline “Biden’s Path to Re-election Has All But Vanished,” it’s hard to take commentator’s opinions any way except literally. As Sosnik admitted:
“If you’re looking at this clear-eyed, it’s hard to not look at where the race stands and think Trump has a pretty significant advantage.”
Despite intentionally editing his interviews to make Biden look more favorable and giving the chief executive as much airtime as possible, the legacy media and pro-Democratic publicity apparatus appear to be playing a losing hand.
It’s Not Biden’s Time
The latest polls, including a recent humdinger from ABC-Ipsos, show that Biden is ceding ground across the country, including losing support among young, Hispanic, and black voters. In fact, Biden currently leads Trump by only six points (47% to 41%) among 18- to 29-year-old voters, a massive plummet from 2020 levels when Biden enjoyed a 24% advantage in the younger demographic.
Among minorities, Biden is also slipping, with only a seven-point lead over Trump among Hispanics (down from a 33% advantage in 2020) and only a 64-point lead over Trump among black voters (Biden held a 75% lead in 2020).
This may well be Trump’s time - again. Even his strongest political opponents admit that the former president has emerged as a heroic figure in America’s story. No number of media appearances or legacy media mop-up operations will make Biden more appealing to swing voters who are already leaning away from him.
POTUS can still win, and conservatives shouldn’t consider the race already over by any means. But Biden's path to victory is increasingly narrow, and his cratering support across key demographics isn’t going to be offset by fawning interviews or softball questions - though canceling appearances due to another round of COVID certainly doesn't help, either.
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