Joe Biden’s strategy to become president appears to be (a) make sure people don’t confuse him with Donald Trump, and (b) worry only about appealing to voters on the Democratic Party’s left flank. Looking at today’s polls, it just might work.
Then again, it might not. That strategy encourages Mr. Biden to be mentally lazy while providing Team Trump with openings they can exploit.
Take the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s appearance Monday as Joy Reid’s inaugural guest on her new MSNBC show. Ms. Reid began by encouraging Mr. Biden to pummel President Trump on the coronavirus, which he did with gusto. “There’s no leadership,” Mr. Biden thundered. “He has no idea what to do.”
Rather than challenge him on that, Ms. Reid asked Mr. Biden what he would do differently as president. His answer sounded good initially but doesn’t amount to much.
The former vice president swung into his spiel: “I talked early on about the Defense [Production] Act” to order companies to manufacture essential items, he said. Mr. Trump invoked the DPA March 27 to force General Motors to step up ventilator production.
Then, Mr. Biden said, “you need more testing.” More than 50 million tests have been conducted in the U.S., 754,858 on Tuesday alone. Next, he said, “insist that everyone wear masks.” The White House Coronavirus Task Force and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on April 3 that everyone wear masks in public.
To help the economy, Mr. Biden proposed to “make sure that people are in a position where they can maintain their businesses.” Mr. Trump signed the Cares Act on March 27, providing $349 billion in partially forgivable small-business loans, later raised to $659 billion. His next idea was to guarantee “no one has to pay for contracting Covid and being treated for Covid.” The Trump administration announced April 3 it would use Cares Act money to pay hospitals that treat uninsured people for Covid-19.
With regard to a vaccine, Mr. Biden said it was essential to “have a command officer now . . . to put together exactly how that will be distributed to over 300 million Americans.” Gen. Gustave F. Perna, head of Army Materiel Command, was appointed chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed on May 15 to accelerate vaccine production and distribution.
By Karl Rove
