Tag: vice president joe biden

Why Trump’s enthusiasm edge over Biden could matter

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Easter Prayer Breakfast in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 4, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Are you enthusiastic about Joe Biden as the Democratic Party nominee for the November election? I am not.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has a serious problem winning in November.  He leads President Donald Trump in pretty much every single national poll. Yet the same polls find that Trump’s supporters are much more enthusiastic about voting for their candidate than Biden’s supporters are voting for theirs.

This split is potentially a good sign for Trump because the candidate who has led on enthusiasm (or a closely related question) has won every presidential election since 1988, though there are reasons to think Biden could break this streak.

Importantly for Trump, the leader on enthusiasm has gone on to win in close elections as well as ones with wider margins.

One of those close elections was four years ago. Trump had a consistent edge over Hillary Clinton in enthusiasm. His voters were 4 points more likely to say they were very enthusiastic in voting for him than Clinton’s were for her in the final ABC News/Washington Post poll, even as Clinton led overall. That enthusiasm advantage should have been one of the warning signals to the Clinton campaign.

The Los Angeles Times opinion page May 16 has the headline “Opinion: Joe who? Biden’s the likely nominee, but readers are oddly quiet about him.” One contributor wrote “I have watched Biden the last few months. Does he inspire others through his leadership? The answer obviously is no. So why will he almost certainly be nominated for president by the Democratic Party? He’s not at the top of his game, he’s prone to making verbal mistakes, and he does not have a coherent message. I can’t imagine him leading our country.”

Sadly I have to agree with that writer.  Biden has not offered any message.  I’m here to oppose Trump is not a message.  It appears Trump will lose in November due to his incompetence related to the coronavirus and the state of the economy rather than enthusiasm for Joe Biden. 

Vice Presidential Debate

It was a Draw!

Vice President Joe Biden did what he does so well.  He was the attack dog.  Congressman Paul Ryan was the calmer deliberate speaker who adequately supported Mitt Romney.

The differences between the parties could not have been more stark.  Both men offered some inaccurate information and both offered some accurate info.

I suspect Joe Biden’s eye rolling and silly grins were all intentional and well practiced.  Even after giving a serious response to Raddatz or Ryan he returned to those big smiles and surprised facial expressions.

Martha Raddatz was an excellent moderator.  She wins the award for performing an outstanding job in a difficult situation.

For those of us who are undecided the decision is yet to be made. Too little time was spent on the job of creating jobs in America.  Biden skipped the topic and Ryan restated the Romney contention that their election will result in 12 million jobs being created in the next four years.  How exactly will that be done?  Biden or Raddatz should have asked Ryan that question.    

 My recent purchase was two beautifully tailored shirts that were made in China.  That is the country that also makes iPhones, Dell computers, and other more expensive high tech devices.

Perhaps the next debate will provide some further reason to vote for one of these candidates.