by Frank Holmes, reporter
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden may not be the man he was when he ran for president in 1988, but he’s proving that he learned important lessons from the 2016 presidential campaign.
On Thursday, Biden visited violence-blighted Kenosha, Wisconsin, to meet with the family of Jacob Blake and hold a scripted town hall meeting with area residents.
Visiting Wisconsin is one of the things Hillary Clinton never did, and it cost her the election. Biden’s campaign realized they can’t fall prey to the same mistake.
Polls show President Donald Trump surging, as even liberal leaders admit that Democratic elected officials botched their response to mass riots and looting.
“The local government looked inept. The state government looked inept,” said Terrance Warthen, who led an organization that backed Bernie Sanders.
The polls in the must-win swing state reflected that. While Biden’s numbers have held steady since late June, Trump has gained four points even before his own visit to Kenosha on Tuesday.
Biden campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield denounced Trump’s show of support for police in the riot-torn city of 100,000 as a “said display” that is “disappointing to every American.”
But then the Biden campaign played follow the leader after Democrats warned them the party was in danger of literally going down in flames.
“The play is for Wisconsin. We are a swing county in a swing state. Trump just won it. Flat out,” Warthen said.
“Biden needed to be here already,” he added. “Democrats largely are not even part of the conversation here.”
Biden, who says he’s been sheltering inside his Delaware home for months to avoid the coronavirus, had intended to stay out of sight until at least next week. His campaign invested in a TV- and online-heavy virtual campaign, but the political stakes got too high.
“Before the shootings in Wisconsin and Oregon, Biden had planned a series of events in and around Delaware this week, and then to hit the road after Labor Day,” reported Politico. “But the campaign was forced to shift gears.”
The visit came just two weeks after Biden refused to visit the Badger State, allegedly over worries about catching COVID-19.
Joe Biden had been set to formally accept the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. Instead, the party canceled the in-person event—which would have pumped millions of dollars into the state’s economy—and settled for an online Zoom convention hosted by early 2000s-era celebrities like Eva Longoria and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
It’s not just Wisconsin. Biden’s also visiting Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Clinton lost four years ago. Politico reports he’s “looking at” scheduling events in the crucial swing states Minnesota and Arizona, if the race gets too close.
The Biden campaign sees Trump breathing down its neck ever since the Republican National Convention, which attracted three million more viewers than the DNC.
Polls from Morning Consult and Yahoo/YouGov show Donald Trump got a four-point bounce after the Republican National Convention, while Joe Biden didn’t get any after his.
It’s not just Wisconsin. In Florida and Pennsylvania, even polls that show Biden winning have Trump within the margin of error.
Trump campaigned at least 50 percent harder than Hillary Clinton in the swing states he won in 2016, according to an analysis by NBC News.
Biden’s schedule signals that he won’t be imitating Hillary’s overconfidence this year.
If Biden’s stilted speeches don’t turn the polls around, Hillary hopes he’ll learn another lesson from her losing campaign.
“Do not concede under any circumstance,” Hillary Clinton said during a recent interview on Instagram, “because I believe the other side is going to cheat and sneak and try everything they possibly can.”
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”