Aside from the politician himself, there is no creature in the filthy business of politics lowlier than the euphemistically termed “political strategist.”
This individual’s whole job, like that of the press secretary, is to figure out the most effective way to lie to voters so as to make it appear that their boss is doing anything productive at all for the people he/she/zhe allegedly works for (we know national-level politicians almost all work for the donor class, but the show must go on for the rubes who don’t pay attention).
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Politico assembled a crack team of these “experts” to offer sage advice on what the Brandon entity’s handlers can do to remedy his failing poll number.
Via Politico, “What Biden Needs to Do to Reassure the Public” (emphasis added):
Is there anything Biden can do at this point to convince voters that at age 81, he’s not too old to serve another term as president? After all, he’s not that much older than his likely opponent, 77-year-old Donald Trump, whose age and mental capacity have also been the subject of some debate. But fairly or not, voters seem more fixated on Biden’s abilities than Trump’s, and this week’s news has only heightened those concerns.
So, we reached out to some of the smartest strategists and insiders from both parties to collect their best ideas for how Biden might convince American voters and politicos that he still has what it takes to be president.
Note that the entire focus of the piece is not on what Biden could actually do to make himself more appealing to voters; it’s what can be done to massage his public image to create the impression that he’s an effective executive.
Because Washington D.C., as they say, is all hat, no cattle.
Where’s the beef?
Here’s a representative bit of drivel from the piece:
We would recommend he and the First Lady do a 60 Minutes interview to discuss it. That would allow him to go on the offensive by ending his defensiveness. He should be forthright about the impact that age has had: He has less energy than he used to, it exacerbates his speech impediment and he sometimes forgets things, as everyone does.
But then, he can flip the question from a referendum to a choice: “Donald Trump and I are about the same age. And both of us do forget things occasionally. But I remember more about what makes this country great and how to save the soul of America than Trump has ever known. I like to think that along with some humbling, my age has brought experience, wisdom, deeper empathy. Age and experience also have offered me the ability to find and recruit a talented and ethical team to help me lead and serve this country.
Instead, the “experts” could have cut right to the chase and offered the only worthwhile, honest advice in the whole column:
The president’s friends and advisers must address their own hard truth: Voters will assess the president’s age and continued fitness for office from what they see and hear — from both sides — in the campaign to come.
