Another primary day, another slew of landslide wins by Joe Biden. In Florida, the former vice president won every single county in the state, capturing 62% of the vote in the process. With the exception of Champaign County, Illinois was Biden territory, where he dominated with voters over the age of 45, noncollege-educated whites, and African Americans. And in Arizona, a state the Bernie Sanders campaign thought could be in play given the senator’s solid support from Latinos in neighboring Nevada, Biden won by 12 percentage points.
Sanders may be spending the day determining whether there is any opening left for him to push forward, but make no mistake: This thing is over. Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, which means Biden is about to enter into the major leagues of presidential campaigning, something he never had to worry about during his two previous runs for the presidency.
The contest between Biden and his Democratic opponents was quite mild. With the exception of Kamala Harris’s attack on Biden for his past positions on busing in the 1970s and Julian Castro’s obnoxious shot at Biden’s mental acuity during a debate last September, the longtime politician has progressed through the primary process unscathed. Everything thrown at Biden thus far hasn’t stuck.
The general election, however, is going to be completely different. Whereas Biden could ward off attacks on his record during the primary with that famous Biden smile and the occasional, “Come on, man!” he is going to have to fight like a gladiator against President Trump. The 2020 general election is going to make the 2020 Democratic primary look like a respectable game of touch football.
Trump is many things to many people. To Trump’s supporters, he is a person who isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade and the only chief executive who will protect the public from all threats, foreign and domestic. To Trump’s opponents, he is a thin-skinned, wannabe dictator who lies through his teeth every minute of the day. All of them, however, tend to agree that Trump is a fierce campaigner who has demonstrated a knack for cutting down his political opponents and feeding their remains to the wolves.
Biden recognizes he’s in for a rough year. He knows Trump will do everything in his power to demonize him and realizes that Trump will try to paint him as the personification of an old Washington politician. Biden also knows that Trump got himself impeached last December after asking the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt against his family. The open question is whether the gentleman from Delaware is ready for it.
Trump will use all of the tactics he used in 2016 against Hillary Clinton — and then some.
He is going to hit Biden hard on his Iraq War vote in 2002, which the vice president remains incapable of providing an even half-serious explanation for. Trump is going to remind voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota about how Biden was an enthusiastic free trader throughout his long political career and of those senators who voted to support NAFTA, the very agreement now blamed for decimating the Midwest’s industrial sector. The president will also get personal — very personal. Hunter Biden’s troubles will come up, even if it’s not relevant to how Biden would govern the country as commander in chief. Expect the word “Burisma” to come up frequently, as well. The Trump campaign will insinuate or outright state that the Bidens are corrupt and exploited the tools of government to enrich their family.
Biden’s response to questions about his son’s business ventures has been to get angry and defensive. This is completely understandable. The last thing a father wants to see is somebody attacking his son for unethical or illegal behavior.
Unfortunately, attacking is Trump’s specialty. Biden better get used to it and find an effective strategy to counter it.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
