Former Vice President Joe Biden
Joe Biden has run essentially a general election campaign against Donald Trump from the day Biden joined the 2020 presidential race. For example, while the Democratic primaries don’t even begin until February 2020 and the candidates are slugging it out with each other, Biden aims most of his rhetoric, and his ads, directly at Trump or the general electorate itself. Biden’s first big ad showed world leaders laughing at, ridiculing, and even ignoring Trump on the world stage. Biden’s latest ad, released just yesterday, warns that, if America is to continue its progress towards justice for all, Donald Trump must not be reelected.
Biden’s general election campaign in the primaries may make good sense, given that Biden is the only Democratic candidate this year to have served eight years as Vice President (to beloved Democratic President Barack Obama), as well as having been a long-serving leader in the U.S. Senate, including being Chairman of the Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees. And such gamble apparently has paid off, as Biden has led the Democratic presidential primary polls, on the national level and in most states, virtually every day since joining the contest.
Therefore, Biden’s next ad should continue his general election theme, and attack Donald Trump on something on which Trump is extremely vulnerable: his physical and mental health, as evidenced by his speech slurring and other behavior.
Trump’s difficulties with speech and motor skills have been widely discussed. Some examples of videos which show Trump having speaking troubles can be found here and here. Trump also sniffs repeatedly when he speaks (prompting commenters to wonder whether he is snorting Adderall or using other drugs), and here he is having trouble lifting and drinking from a small water bottle, needing two hands to do so, twice in one speech:
Additionally, Trump recently was spirited to the hospital, along with his doctor, on a weekend. The White House cover story that Trump was merely getting a portion of his annual physical out of the way makes no sense. After that visit, some commenters observed that Trump’s left arm seemed limp, prompting them to speculate whether Trump may have had a heart attack (like Bernie Sanders) or a stroke. This is in addition to earlier footage of Trump limping or walking unsteadily, raising similar questions about his health.
Joe Biden’s campaign should immediately cut an ad that edits many of these incidents together, with a baritone voiceover, asking: “Donald Trump: is he physically and mentally fit to be president?” Why should Biden do this? Because Trump’s campaign is certain to do it to Biden, who overcame a severe stuttering problem as a child, but who still sometimes has instances of halting speech as a result. And this is a case where it’s better to go on offense and be first than to be the one reacting to the other side’s attacks.
Photo by Michael Stokes, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/cGs3f6
