Oh, how my heart sang when I heard President Biden speak today. Like most political observers with a little savvy on the subject, for more than a month now I’ve been begging Biden on bended knee to go on the offensive against the GOP on their bullshit attacks over the economy. And finally, today, he delivered a 1-2 punch to the GOP’s gut. The first punch is Biden’s, but the 2nd one every Democratic candidate needs to pound on for the next 18 days.
First, let’s look at Biden’s punch. I call it Biden’s punch simply because it falls within his duties as President. Ever since gas prices started rising and inflation goosed upwards, the GOP has been blaming all of it on Biden’s failed economic agenda. Forgot the fact that gas prices rose on Putin’s clusterfuck invasion of Ukraine, and inflation was due to shortages stemming from manufacturing disruptions and supply chain kerfuffles due to the pandemic. The GOP reined to saddle Biden with these negative things, as any minority party should do, going into the midterm elections.
But Biden hammered back today, and hammered hard. He started by acknowledging the shortcomings in the economy, but countered with the positive news that inflation appeared to be flatlining, and that gas prices were once again dropping on an almost daily basis across the United States. Nice touch. But then he finally dropped the hammer ong the GOP.
But you have to look at what I inherited from the Trump administration. Covid was rampant. The stock market was at historic lows. Small and medium sized businesses were going belly up. Unemployment was at 11.5%. And in less than 2 years, the stock market is on the rebound, we’ve recovered every single job we lost in the pandemic, manufacturing is booming again, and unemployment is at historic lows. And to top it off, my administration has chopped almost 2 trillion dollars from the federal deficit after Trump’s unpaid for $2 trillion tax cut for the wealthy!
This was a critical line for Biden to draw. After all, Biden didn’t take office under normal conditions, with normal economic forces at work. Biden took office in a still largely uncontrolled Covid pandemic, with crippling unemployment and a stock market in freefall. It is perfect for Biden to point out that without his successful stewardship of the economy, things could be far worse than they are. That’s a message that resonates.
But then Biden dropped his bomb. He started out by outlining all of the positive accomplishments of the Biden presidency for the American people. And then Biden turned it all on its head. He thundered, But with everything we’ve done for you, if the GOP takes control on November 8th, what do they want to do to you? If they get control, capping Medicare patients monthly insulin payments at $35 a month will go away. They will try again to revoke the ACA. They will overturn Medicare’s ability to negotiate lower prescription drug costs with Big Pharma. They will try to impose a national abortion ban. They will hold the national debt hostage to social spending cuts. They will roll back LGBTQ rights!
I cannot even begin to tell you what a winning message this is for the Democrats. Acknowledge the difficulties in the economy, state your solutions, but then pivot to what the GOP will do to you starting in January if they take control, using their own words against them. There’s no shortage of accurate information. Rick Scott, Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson have all made their goals crystal clear.
This is manna from heaven for the Democrats. Biden has an issue he can go to neutral territory that is friendly to him to pound home. And Democrats nationwide have new ammo with which to hammer the GOP on their own stated goals for the country if they take power. And lurking in the shadows is the specter of the Democrat’s secret weapon, Barack Obama, ready to hit the trail in critical swing states for Democrats. This is by no means a done deal. Motivate, organize, donate, and GOTV. Democracy is on the ballot.
Time to crow! The other aspect is he looks and acts and speaks like the commander in chief. People want reassurance when worried about the future. All the gop can do is stir up economic & racial fear. The troops need to follow his lead. He also indicated he seriously felt the duty to run again, & reassured everyone that even if the gop took over the house, he would veto their efforts to codify their agenda into law. Love the directness & the fight. The dark Brandon strikes fear & loathing into the hearts of the extremists. You go Joe!
Biden has done so much to help this country, he’s a good honest man who really cares about helping people . Not to mention the vast knowledge he has from being in senate and congress, and Vice President for eight years . His experience has taught him a lot . People forget what a mess Trump left for him to fix .
I have never regretted my vote for President Biden. In my community, people understand that we are post pandemic, they understand that businesses were price gouging, AND they also understand that gas/oil prices are not the fault of the Biden/Harris administration.
All Dems running for office need to quit being nice and go on the attack. Hammer in what Biden said today and take it all one step further if possible. He also mentioned how many Republicans received PPP loans and had them forgiven, just like his proposal to forgive student debt.
For to long the Democrats have been good polite little trolls. We have gone on and let republicans crap all over us. That’s a big reason we are getting spanked by republicans. Mainly we let them whack us on the ass and then we scream thank you may I have another. The other side sees this and they don’t want any part of it. But all along they look at what we stand for and they say. If only these people had a backbone what they stand for is awesome. Well finally we are standing up to the republicans. Hell soon hopefully trump will be under indictment. That alone is awesome. The far right doesn’t like us picking on their little darling but the more centered people not so much. They are tired of the moron. They are tired of the whole crap shoot. Maybe we still have a chance. If we can convince the center right and the independents we do still have a chance. Especially if they think there’s going a fight or two along the way. Slap the schoolyard bully right up on his cheeks. It says to turn the other cheek. It doesn’t say anything about not doing something after they slap both cheeks.