Where Have You Gone, Joe Biden?

It was a telling moment when the coward refused to respond to two White House reporters in the Rose Garden who challenged him on his lies about how well his administration handled the coronavirus pandemic.

With his usual infantile pouting, he first tried to shut down CBS News’ Weijia Jiang, who has been the subject of racist taunts by members of the administration previously, and then he deflected to CNN’s Kaitlen Collins who backed Jiang and refused to let him move forward in his pageant of self-aggrandizing lies that America must endure every day.

So he walked away.  And the video went viral.

Bernie Sanders responded very quickly:  “Pretty pathetic,” he tweeted.  “Mr. Trump is a coward who tears down others to make himself feel powerful.”

Where was Joe Biden?

It is time for Biden to stop being the accidental candidate who surprised everyone with his primary wins.  I do not care if he had a Skype, Zoom or carrier pigeon connection with Hillary Clinton to gain her endorsement.  I don’t care if Barack Obama reached out to unify the Democrats behind him.  I want Joe to come out swinging.  That was supposed to be part of his appeal:  he is a working class guy from Delaware, someone who has faced a lifetime of adversity and tragedy and come out the other side stronger and wiser.  He was a good counterpoint to the more cerebral Obama during their administration.  He spoke his mind, often to the detriment of polite company, but no one ever questioned where Biden stood on an issue.  In recent months, he has owned up to his mistakes and made attempts to fight back against a questionable accusation of sexual assault.

Yet, we are all left wondering, is this our next president?  He is a nice guy, but can he go toe-to-toe with Putin, the coronavirus, and the devastated economy.

Online presence?  Very little.  He comes to us from his basement studio like some kind of hostage.  Granted, this is a whole new ballgame when it comes to winning an election.  How does one campaign when he cannot get out and meet the people?  That is Biden’s strong suit—he relates well to people.

So let’s go, Joe:  pick a VP and build momentum, a coalition, and an agenda.  Do more briefings on Facebook and social media.  Continue to push the Biden plan to defeat COVID-19 and save the American economy and way of life.  Go after the obvious and abundant failings of this administration, one that has brought America and Americans to our knees.  We are sick, we are dying, we are facing financial collapse.  And our president only talks about his own greatness.  Biden can change the narrative.

He needs to be more visible.  He must go on the offensive.  Right now, he is barely playing defense.  As it stands, there will be no convention, no live campaign events, no moments where the real Joe can shine as a people person unless the campaign can create such moments.  So he and his staff need to think outside the box.  He no longer can be reactionary, and in the case of Trump’s verbal abuse of the two reporters the other day, he is not even reacting, at least not like Sanders did almost immediately after the incident.

Trump is a bully.  He is not a brawler because he cannot take a punch.  He resorts to bluster and bravado and when questioned, he folds like a cheap tent in a brisk breeze and sulks off to nurse his narcissism.  That is how to beat him:  hit him once and he’ll fold.  Suggest that he isn’t worthy of being an American president.  Remind him how he has mishandled and magnified this pandemic.  Tell him he has American deaths on his head for this.  Threaten to lock him up for his negligence.  This is a guy who cannot take responsibility for anything, so keep reminding him, and America, how responsible he is for the illness, for the death, for the way he has screwed up literally every part of the job for which he was elected.  He is a failure, and worse, he has made America lose a step in the world.  We are no longer a great country because of Trump, because of his policies, because of his lack of intelligence.  One punch and he will fold, because that is what bullies do.

The one bright spot in the Biden campaign are the commercials that have been produced.  Those hit the bully where he is most vulnerable.  They also show the world what makes Biden the perfect candidate for this COVID-19 pandemic and the plight of Americans.  He feels and has empathy, something Trump fails to do every time he comes to an open mic.

The days of the gentlemen’s campaign are gone.  One, politics is diversifying, so gentlemen is a dated term.  But in the age of Trump, one has to rewrite the playbook.  Biden needs to be a fighter and get on point.  At times during the primaries, he looked a little addled and confused.  Yes, a younger candidate might be more tech savvy and quicker on his feet, but this is where we are.  Biden brings sagacity and insight to the job.  He has made government work for the people before, and he knows how to reach across the aisle.  Biden should not run away from his 77 years, but embrace them as the givers of wisdom that they are.

People in this country and around the world are sick and dying.  The world is in miserable shape.  We have lost our standing.  If Joe Biden is going to lead us out of all of this, he must emerge from the basement and pick up the leadership mantle.  He must go on the offensive and take no prisoners.  He is the Democratic nominee; people voted for him.  It was not an accident.