Republicans panned Joe Biden’s speech accepting the Democratic nomination as thin on a governing agenda and thick on kitschy cliches. But quietly, GOP operatives conceded the spirited address packed a punch that undercuts President Trump’s argument that his opponent is in mental decline and unprepared to lead.
Biden, 77, capped off a four-day virtual convention with an impassioned speech from Wilmington, Delaware, imploring voters to choose light over darkness, hope over fear, and join him in a battle for the soul of America. Republicans took notice of the former vice president’s sharp delivery, acknowledging it rebuts Trump’s attack questioning the mental acuity of “Slow Joe” and charge that he is ill-equipped for the rigors of the White House.
“It was an energetic speech,” a Republican insider in Florida said. “Empathy, empathy, empathy.”
“He made it through fine,” a second Republican operative said.
Perhaps telling was how the Trump campaign chose to characterize Biden’s address, which accused Trump of failing to lead amid a coronavirus pandemic that has left more than 170,000 people in the United States dead and sent unemployment skyrocketing.
There was nothing in Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh’s statement about Biden’s cognitive abilities — and even the warning about the former vice president’s agenda was a warning about his association with other, more radical Democrats.
“By accepting his party’s nomination tonight, Joe Biden has formally become a pawn of the radical leftists. His name is on the campaign logo, but the ideas come from the socialist extremists,” Murtaugh said. “Joe Biden is a twice-failed candidate for president and is, without question, a far worse candidate the third time around.”
However, Republicans say Biden fell short Thursday evening in that his speech was too heavy on criticism of Trump and too light on a forward-looking governing agenda. Republican operatives who otherwise complimented the energy and focus Biden brought to his address said swing voters, in particular, might have found it wanting.
The Democratic nominee said he would implement an aggressive plan on Day One of his presidency to defeat the coronavirus, and he pledged an economic agenda that would raise taxes on wealthy people and invest in expanding domestic manufacturing. Republicans said it was not enough, that Biden’s speech was too much “orange man bad.”
“I didn’t see a path forward from Biden, and it was a downer,” a Republican strategist in North Carolina said.
Added a GOP consultant in Washington, D.C.: “Biden’s struggle is projecting his campaign in the future when he is from the past and so many in his base are obsessed with the present,” this Republican said. “You saw him try to adapt to that in the later stages of his speech, but it will remain the swing voter’s appetite he has trouble appeasing.”
Biden leads Trump in most public opinion polls, nationally and in key battleground states. Trump has a chance to turn things around next week, when the Republican Party will celebrate his renomination with a four-day virtual convention.
And Biden will still have to prove during the debates that he is mentally strong.
