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BIDEN AND DEMOCRAT MESSAGING NYT OPINION ... Charle M. Blow ... Biden Becomes a Boon for Democrats 
Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times Original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/opinion/biden-democrats-midterms.html Peter Burgess COMMENTARY In the upcoming midterm elections we will learn something about the American people ... something about how smart they are or how stupid. I think most people default to being pretty smart ... but for a long time now the political dialog has been pretty much a race to the bottom. In this race, the Republicans have tended to do much more effective messaging including the embracing of lie after lie after lie. The Democrats have done a poor job of messaging, and have allowed themselves to bicker amongst themselves in a very unhelpful way. Most people don't have the time to do in-depth research about the political options ... they need efficient fast, truthful messaging ... and if this is produced, then people will make good decisions. The political agenda of the Democrats ... the Biden administration ... is going to be good for at least 80% of the population, and it is incomprehensible to me that 80% of more of the electorate do not vote in favor of the Democratic agenda rather than the almost totally absent GOP agenda. The people who are against the Democratic agenda are mainly rich and powerful or beholden in some way to the rich and powerful. This includes a lot of reasonable people who have bought in to the concept that unconstrained freedom is the best way for society to function ... but who conveniently forget that this works for both the 'good' folk and the 'bad' folk. Sensible rules make much more sense, and oftern less is more, but they must be good rules. Another group of people who worry about supporting a Democrat agenda are people in good jobs who want to stay in good jobs and therefore stay quiet. Some may even believe that a Democrat agenda will endanger their employment because of excessive social spending for the less fortunate. This argument might have been valid in the American economy of a hundred years ago, but not so much today where economic management is considerably more sophisticated and there is a huge backlog of essential rebuilding that needs to get done. This is in the Democrat agenda much more clearly than the GOP side of the aisle. Thank goodness ... Biden seems to have gotten the message. His agenda ... the Democrat agenda ... is so much better for American than anything the GOP has to offer and intends to implement. Peter Burgess | ||
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OPINION ... Biden Becomes a Boon for Democrats
By Charles M. Blow ... Opinion Columnist Aug. 28, 2022 The coattail effect in politics is the theory that the popularity of a candidate at the top of the ticket redounds to the benefit of those in the same party down ballot. You vote Democratic for president, then you might vote Democratic for senator or mayor. But what do we call it when the person from whom the benefit flows is not actually on the ballot? What if the person isn’t even personally that popular? Let’s call it phantom coattails. That is what I believe is happening with President Biden at the moment. With a string of successes, he is building momentum and shaking off narratives of ineffectiveness. Last week he announced that the federal government would forgive billions of dollars of student loan debt. Republicans predictably squawked about it being an unfair giveaway. Progressives complained that the plan didn’t go far enough. But Biden did act. He did fulfill his campaign promise, to a degree. That is crucial. After some major losses — on liberal priorities like voter protections and police reform — voters needed more wins. It wasn’t Biden’s fault that his agenda was blocked. For that, the blame goes to obstructionist Republicans and demi-Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. There was, however, a sense setting in that electing an elderly institutionalist meant that he wasn’t filled with enough fight, that he was guided by a sort of geriatric gentility. Biden’s recent wins put a major dent in those perceptions and are changing how people feel about him. According to FiveThirtyEight’s poll of polls, his approval rating, while still underwater, has been trending up for the past month. This week it reached 44 percent, the highest it has been in a year. It is the direction of the line that is most important in politics. And I believe that Biden’s reversal will bode well for other Democrats. Some of what is helping Biden is not his success but that of Republicans. The overturning of Roe v. Wade was monumental and is still stuck in voters’ minds. Many feel they are stuck in a nightmare and Democrats hold the only possibility of salvation. This decision, this victory by the forced-birth zealots, wiped out the progress Republicans were making by pushing the anti-wokeness canard — this idea that they had to fight back against racial indoctrination, against people who would redefine what a woman is and against health regulation. The War Against Woke now looks silly in light of the escalated War Against Women. Also, Trump has resurfaced as a foil. The stench around him grows stronger as investigations intensify and damning revelations continue to emerge. They may not alter the fealty of his followers, but they remind the rest of us of the horror we escaped by ejecting him from office and how desperately we don’t want to return to it. In fact, the re-emergence of Trump as a constant, prominent feature of national news is probably one of the greatest assets Democrats have going into the midterms. Time has a way of softening the perception of ex-presidents. George W. Bush went from the man who led the charge on the Iraq war, established the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay and defended torture to the man who laughed a lot, painted portraits and passed Michelle Obama candy at funerals. But Trump refuses to exit the battle. And with every revelation of legal jeopardy and suspicious movement, he hinders any possibility of rehabilitation. None of this is to say that Democrats have a lock on the midterm elections or that they will not suffer losses, as the ruling party historically has. There are still headwinds. Violent crime and inflation loom large in voters’ minds because they have risen to rates that some areas haven’t seen in decades. People blame Biden for that. It’s not in his control, but it’s on his watch. That’s just the way politics works. However, Biden keeps adding other things to the other side of the ledger, and on balance, he and the Democrats keep looking stronger. There are some Democrats nervous about campaigning with Biden because of his poor approval numbers, particularly in competitive districts. But Biden and his successes are the best things Democrats have right now. They should probably take a note from Charlie Crist, who just won the Democratic primary in Florida to challenge the incumbent governor, Ron DeSantis. When Crist was asked last week on CNN if he wanted Biden to campaign with him, he responded in part by saying of Biden: “He’s a good man. He’s a great man. He’s a great president. I can’t wait for him to get down here. I need his help. I want his help.” Whether other Democrats want Biden’s help or not, I believe that they are going to need it. Running away from the leader of your party is never a good idea. It’s a particularly terrible idea when that leader is on a hot streak. Charles M. Blow joined The Times in 1994 and became an Opinion columnist in 2008. He is also a television commentator and writes often about politics, social justice and vulnerable communities. @CharlesMBlow • Facebook A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 29, 2022, Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Biden Becomes a Boon for Democrats. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper More on the midterm elections Opinion | Jamelle Bouie Democrats Might Get Exceptionally Lucky This Fall, and They Should Be Ready for That Aug. 26, 2022 Opinion | Frank Bruni, Molly Jong-Fast and Doug Sosnik ‘A Stirring of Democratic Hearts’: Three Writers Discuss a Transformed Midterm Landscape Aug. 25, 2022 Opinion | Spencer Bokat-Lindell Can Democrats Avoid a Midterm Wipeout? July 27, 2022 The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and Instagram. The coming midterm elections “There’s a stirring of Democratic hearts, a blooming of Democratic hopes, a belief that falling gas prices, key legislative accomplishments and concern about abortion rights equal a reprieve from the kind of midterm debacle that Democrats feared just a month or two ago.” 1 of 6 Frank Bruni, in a roundtable discussion with Molly Jong-Fast and Doug Sosnik, on Democrats’ chances in the coming midterms. Read the discussion. “So this constant distilling into the ‘Big Lie’ overlooks something key: A sea change is slowly happening on the right as it relates to policy expectations.” 2 of 6 Rachel Bovard, in a roundtable discussion with Ross Douthat and Tim Miller on the future of the Republican Party. Read the discussion. “The reproductive rights side has long had the numbers, just not the intensity. If Democrats can keep the pressure on, abortion politics could prove increasingly painful and destructive for Republicans.” 3 of 6 Michelle Cottle, in “Abortion and Trump Are Giving Democrats a Shot.” Read the essay. “In my 28 years analyzing elections, I’ve never seen anything like what’s happened in the past two months in American politics: Women are registering to vote in numbers I’ve never witnessed.” 4 of 6 Tom Bonier, a Democratic political strategist, in “Women Are So Fired Up to Vote, I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It.” Read the guest essay. “It is the direction of the line that is most important in politics. And I believe that Biden’s reversal will bode well for other Democrats.” 5 of 6 Charles Blow, in “Biden Becomes a Boon For Democrats.” Read the column. “While periods of divided government can yield gridlock, they also offer opportunities for progress.” 6 of 6 Oren Cass and Chris Griswold of American Compass, a think tank for conservative economics, in “What Republicans Should Do if They Win Big This Fall.” Read the guest essay. Retrospection rehabilitates. Editors’ Picks
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