In one of the best episodes of the first season of The West Wing of the White House, The team of peripatetic aides surrounding President Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, decide that all his caution to avoid jeopardizing his chances of a second term is being counterproductive and encourage him to show his true colors. The episode, broadcast in 2000, was titled Let Bartlet Be Bartlet (“let Bartlet be Bartlet”), and the phrase “just like the series, Aaron Sorkin’s idealized portrait of the functioning of a Democratic Administration” made a fortune. He also ended up adding to the vocabulary of the Washington tribe. Lately, it has been heard loudly again: “Let Biden be Biden,” say the Democratic strategists and gurus of the president’s re-election campaign.
And suddenly Joe Biden looks comfortable in the role of Joe Biden. Confident about the success of his State of the Union speech, from which he emerged with flying colors ―as gracefully as expectations were low― and momentarily put aside the focus of the debate on his age and his abilities to carry out the job, he has launched the attack of his opponent, Donald Trump, is already fishing in electoral fishing grounds in decisive states. Last Friday he was in Philadelphia, since he again needs Pennsylvania to renew his lease at the White House. On Saturday, he traveled to Georgia, where Trump lost something like half of the presidency (and the Senate) in the last election. In that State, the Republican candidate also offered one of his long and disjointed rallies over the weekend. And on Monday, Biden flew aboard Air Force One to New Hampshire. It is the kind of entry into action that the Democrats had been demanding from him for months, concerned about his options in the hand-to-hand combat against the tycoon.
In Georgia, the two candidates exchanged reproaches at events on Saturday afternoon. The world seemed upside down when Trump defined Biden’s solemn intervention before Congress as “an angry, somber, hate-filled diatribe.” “I shouldn’t be yelling so angrily at Americans,” he added.
Biden, for his part, spoke outside Atlanta to a smaller group of supporters at an event that served to highlight a $30 million investment by three political action groups aimed at mobilizing the Latino, Asian and American vote. black. Nine out of 10 African Americans voted for Biden in Georgia, but polls show a loss of confidence after his three years in the White House. At the rally, the Democratic candidate presented the November event as “a battle of two competing visions for the soul of this nation”: his own, and that of Trump’s “history of resentment, revenge and revenge.”
In addition to fully campaigning and in attack mode, Biden also appears suddenly comfortable with issues whose mere mention used to unleash his anger. The main one is his age. In the State of the Union address, he wanted to make a virtue of necessity: “When you reach my years [con 81 es el presidente más viejo de la historia del país], certain things become clearer than ever,” he stated at the end of his speech. And on Saturday he aired an ad in which the president says to the camera: “Look, I’m not a young man, that’s no secret. But I know how to get things done for the American people.” He also defends the achievements of his first term, and mocks and criticizes his opponent: “Trump believes that the president’s job is to take care of Trump.” “Shall we do another take?” asks a voice in off next. They cut and, without changing the shot, Biden says with a half smile: “Hey, but I’m very young, energetic and handsome. “Why the hell are we filming this ad?”
Soon, the Trump campaign, who is 77 years old, circulated a version of that video that intersperses images of stumbles and embarrassing situations for Biden. In another ad he asks the question: “If he wins, will he be able to survive until 2029?” [cuando termine el siguiente mandato]?”.
This Monday, the Democrat stressed this strategy in a meeting with municipal representatives called for a round anniversary: “Congratulations to the National League of Cities, 100 years… I want to clarify that I have always supported it, but I did not attend the first meeting,” he joked.
Electoral budget
To reinforce his electoral offer, Biden presented his budget for 2025 a few hours later. It is a maximum proposal with few signs of success on Capitol Hill, and as such it is full of electoral winks: it foresees an expenditure of 7.3 trillion dollars , higher taxes for companies and large fortunes and measures to reduce family spending, housing costs and health care. He also renews his call for members of Congress to approve a $100 billion package to strengthen border security and send military aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Away from the economy, the primary process continues: Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington State vote this Tuesday. They are events devoid of emotion, except for two points of interest: they represent the opportunity for Trump to get enough delegates (he is missing 139) to mathematically confirm a victory that is taken for granted after the resignation last week of his last opponent, Nikki Haley, and because Biden once again faces in very Democratic Washington a campaign by progressive sectors that ask for the “undeclared” vote (the equivalent of blank voting) as a protest measure to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza . Similar initiatives have already somewhat spoiled the party in the primaries of Michigan, Minnesota and North Carolina.
Support for Israel is one of the great obstacles on his path to re-election, and it is costing him in the polls the loss of support from Arab voters, the most left-wing sectors of the Democratic coalition and young people. In his State of the Union address, he promised to build a temporary port so that humanitarian aid can enter Gaza, but he has not managed, as he had promised, to make negotiations for a second truce between Israel and Hamas bear fruit ( six weeks of ceasefire to exchange 40 of the more than 130 hostages in the Strip for the release of 400 Palestinian prisoners and an increase in humanitarian aid), before the start of the holy month of Ramadan last Sunday. It is clear that on that front, Biden has not quite found the best way to be Biden.
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