I have to say, there was a lot of chatter during the primary about Joe Biden’s age linked with his mental acuity and sharpness. Let’s be honest, he’s of advanced age and he’s not the bouncy spring chicken we saw campaigning with then-Senator Barack Obama in 2008 and again as vice president in 2012.
He and his family have been through some stuff … to say the least. Stuff that’s not unlike that many of us experience: serious illness, death, drug addiction. The difference between a Biden family and our family is their “stuff” is under the public lens.
Biden is a comfortably wealthy man. He’s not the MOST wealthy, but he ain’t broke. The bulk of his income comes from sales of his books and speaking engagements. Some of us know that when he was vice president and his son Beau was diagnosed with brain cancer and receiving treatment, Joe and his wife, Jill, contemplated selling their house to help Beau with expenses. President Obama offered to give him the money to prevent Joe from having to sell his house. Joe told that story after he’d left the White House and before announcing that he would not run for president in 2016 after Beau’s death.
The things that impress me the most watching Joe Biden’s campaign during the primary and now in the general election are the discipline and professionalism of his campaign and campaign staff/team.
They [the campaign] put everything into South Carolina. He had very little cash and barely a wind at his back. That gamble — with the help of James Clyburn — paid off. He didn’t just win South Carolina, he swept it. After the South Carolina primary, his team moved to form a coalition with the other candidates with a breakneck speed that have never been seen before. By Super Tuesday, he had the endorsement of almost all of the heavy-hitters he’d shared a stage with. No matter if he was your candidate or not, THAT had never been seen before. He won states he was not expected to win because he’d not campaigned in those states because he had no money. That’s never been seen before.
We’re now in the general election. He has plenty of cash on hand and is running close to a fifty-state strategy. He’s not actively campaigning in a state like Utah, but he has a presence here thanks to loyal supporters and television ad buys. It feels like his campaign is here, even though his campaign is not officially here. I personally don’t feel left out, and much of that is owed to Utah for Biden/Harris.
Joe Biden is running a rock-solid campaign. His campaign staff is a diversity of voices ranging from political veterans to political novices, young and old. His campaign is impressive. He hasn’t made a lot of mistakes or gaffes. Yes, many of us hold our breath hoping his words don’t become the sound bite that gets amplified across the blogger-sphere. Yeah, there was the “You ain’t black” moment, but for me … when I listened to the entire comment with context, I didn’t feel the comment was what it was made out to be. But that’s my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own.
In this moment, the country is looking for a chief executive officer as well as a commander-in-chief who will carry the weight of the office of the president with the seriousness it deserves. That person is Joseph Biden, and the way he has run his campaign has proven it. He’s running a stellar campaign.
Compare that to how Donald Trump ran his 2016 campaign and is running his 2020 reelection campaign. His campaign, as well as his administration, have been rife with corruption, fraud, misuse of money, and incompetency. His 2020 campaign had to be bailed out by Sheldon Adelson. He’s pulled advertisements from key battleground states because he’s out of money after his campaign managers stuffed their pockets. Many people associated with Trump in the last and present campaigns have been indicted for various crimes that include fraud and lying. He said in 2016 that he loaned his campaign millions of dollars. He didn’t. There is a current inquiry of how he actually came about $10 million and its connection to the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Yes, there’s a lot of there, there.
Donald Trump is not a chief executive officer and he’s not a commander-in-chief. He’s a privileged man who’s used to people doing things for him and bailing him out. That’s been his entire existence, which has been made possible by the presence of money. But the money in Donald Trump’s life didn’t start with him. It started with his father. If Donald Trump had done nothing but live off of his inheritance, he’d be a lot wealthier than what he is now. But, because he’s not a good businessman and because he is a narcissist who has spent his life trying to get more because enough is never enough, he has used a lot of people and lost a lot of money in the process. That’s who Donald Trump is.
I am impressed by how Joe Biden has run his campaign. It gives me good hope for how he will run his administration and therefore, the country.
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