Joe Biden’s campaign puts together a near-genius ad for Texas:
This is important for a couple of reasons:
- Trump isn’t mentioned. By not doing so, straight-up politics is pushed out of the limelight. This is an appeal to the emotions that the campaign thinks many people are feeling as hospitals fill up and businesses close down, and it focuses people on the candidate who is offering leadership, and takes the focus off the candidate who’s just putzing around in the background and randomly thumping his chest. This is a video about compassion and competency.
- By not focusing on Trump, it gives the viewers the opportunity to think about other Texas Republicans, such as their local representative, who is up for reelection in November, or Senator Cornyn (R), also up for reelection, who inserted his foot in his mouth yesterday concerning children catching Covid-19, or even their Governor Abbot and Lt. Governor Patrick, both Republicans, but they are not up for reelection until 2022. Once again, Biden offers compassion and competency; all the Republicans have urged a quick return to opening the economy, a course of action that has put a lot of people in the hospital, and Texas, a big state that should probably be broken up for Covid-19 measurement purposes, in the top ten for daily new cases of Covid-19 per capita.
- Biden gets to use his trademark reputation for bringing people together. We all know that sometimes he’s worked with unsavory sorts, but his ability to work with any reasonable person is gaining appeal in a country that’s long been tearing apart along partisan lines.
- Finally, he may have forty years in government service, and, sure, maybe the partisan trolls will try to make him out to be a denizen of the swamp – but forty years of service is forty years of experience, and the drooping polls for Republicans across the boards suggest Americans have decided to dump their long-time date with freaking amateurs and try out experience and professionalism for a chance. Former Speaker Ryan (R-WI) once expressed confidence that experts weren’t necessary to run a country, but I think independents and moderate conservatives have run out of patience with that bit of right-fringe nonsense. This ad reminds us of Biden’s length of service, and, without mentioning Trump once, offers that experience. He doesn’t engage in magical thinking, unlike Trump. He’s told us that things will be tough. But he’s a realist, and maybe Americans have had enough.
- This will force the Republicans to defend a State they may have regarded as secure. From the Texas Tribune:
There have been a series of polls in recent weeks finding a tight contest between Biden and President Donald Trump in historically red Texas.
One poll released Sunday found Biden leading Trump by 5 percentage points among likely voters, while another survey that came out the same day gave Trump a 1-point lead among likely voters, well within the margin of error.
That has to be shocking for Texas Republicans.
Look for more effective ads from Biden’s campaign. Someone sure did this one right.
