Joe Biden’s “Electability†Argument Is How Democrats Lose Elections
Peter Hamby May 07, 2019
Aside from his global fame and his love affair with soft-serve ice cream, Joe Biden’s biggest calling card at this budding stage of the presidential race is the mushy notion of “electability.†Biden, the former vice president, isn’t outright saying that he would be the best foil against Donald Trump next year, but he’s laying it on thick, mugging for the cameras in Iowa diners and bragging to a Teamsters union hall in Pittsburgh that the road back to the White House runs straight through working-class Pennsylvania. Biden’s home turf. “Shot-and-a-beer†territory, as Richard Ben Cramer called it.
The imagery is not subtle. Biden wants Democrats to know that he and he alone is best positioned to reclaim the Upper Midwest after Trump’s Electoral College burglary in 2016. With Biden, you know what you’re in for: a tested statesman with populist charm who can clean up Trump’s malarkey on day one. He can go to the Hague one day, and then show up at Sturgis the next. And folks, if you’re not getting the message, his allies will give it to you loud and clear: Biden. Can. Win.
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