Uh-oh, President Trump — Joe Biden didn’t embarrass himself or give back the rest of his allotted time in a panic during last weekend’s debate. That, according to Henry Olsen of the Washington Post, should “terrify” you!
What’s more, Olsen thought Biden “looked, sounded and felt presidential.”
Setting aside what Biden feels like, this is the kind of effusive praise that liberals in the media are showering on him now, in hopes of setting expectations so low that he seems like a strong contender. The truth is that even though Biden may have the best shot at denying Trump reelection, Democrats have absolutely no reason to be optimistic that he will.
Trump enjoyed record-high approval ratings following his impeachment. Although those gains have evaporated amid the coronavirus health scare, he sits in the same low 40s that his first term has known pretty much since it began.
And a poll released Monday even showed that more of the public approves of the administration’s handling of the matter (47%) than does not (43%).
Biden isn’t going to win the nomination because he saw a surge of enthusiasm and energy from Democratic voters. He’s going to win because the party’s establishment completely panicked about Bernie Sanders. The evidence suggests now that the coalition Sanders believed he could create either doesn’t exist or is largely content with sitting this one out.
Did Biden have a good night on Sunday? Or did he have an acceptable night against a weak rival who lacks any path to the nomination?
It’s very easy to have “looked, sounded and felt presidential” when Biden was facing only one other competitor, and when that one competitor has all but conceded.
It will be another thing for Biden when he’s up against Trump, whose unparalleled campaign skills are appreciated by everyone but the media. The same journalists who didn’t think he could win in 2016 cannot admit now that he’s actually very, very good. (And that being a billionaire has nothing to do with it, as Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer both now know.)
Biden may have “looked, sounded and felt presidential” up against his weak rival. But no one should count on that lasting.
