Dem
51
GOP
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With Super Tuesday and the SOTU address now behind us, the general-election campaign is already on. It's true that Donald Trump is currently 197 delegates shy of 50% + 1 of the delegates to the Republican National Convention. Tomorrow Washington, Mississippi, Hawaii and Georgia vote, and with no opponents anymore, he will probably win all 161 delegates at stake and be within 36 of the magic 1215 number. A week later, six more states vote and Trump will be what is called the "presumptive nominee," meaning that if he is still alive in July, he will be officially nominated at the Republican National Convention. Joe Biden will also hit "presumptive nominee" status on March 19. Sorry, Jason Palmer.
There isn't much doubt that there will be a rematch between the 2020 candidates again, even if it won't be official for 8 days. This is the first rematch since 1956, when Dwight Eisenhower beat Adlai Stevenson a second time. With the expectation of it being déjà vu all over again (sorry, Yogi), both candidates are hitting the trail already. In fact, on Saturday, both of them went to Georgia, one of the most closely contested states. As you very likely know, Trump fell 11,780 votes short there in 2020, a number that will live in infamy.
The two candidates spoke a bare 60 miles apart. Their speeches gave some clues as to how they will campaign for the next 8 months. Biden has already said he will visit all the battleground states in the next few weeks (and Trump likely will, too).
Biden is coming off a SOTU speech that got raves from Democrats due to the energy and feistiness he showed. It scared Republicans who were expecting Rip Van Winkle and got an older version of Jack Kennedy instead. Biden understands that he has some work to do with Black men. He is also aware that many Black men are unaware of what he has done that could help them, like lowering health-care costs and cracking down on price gouging, so he is going to push hard on his concrete achievements. One problem Biden has is there are no coattails to grab onto in Georgia. In 2020, now-Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) was on the ballot, which no doubt brought Black men to the polling stations. This year there is no gubernatorial or senatorial election in Georgia, so Biden has to do it on his own.
Biden also understands that Republicans are going to yell about his age until the cows come home, so he is tackling the issue head on. Here is his first general-election ad. It deals with his age up front:
The ad opens with Biden looking at the camera and saying: "Look, I'm not a young guy. That's no secret. But here's the deal. I understand how you get things done for the American people." He then talks about his achievements on the economy, health care, infrastructure, and climate change, among other things. He also mentions Trump by name, something he didn't do in the SOTU speech. The ad also contains video clips of Trump looking like a buffoon. Later in the ad, Biden says: "Donald Trump believes the job of the president is to take care of Donald Trump. I believe the job of the president is to fight for you, the American people." The ad ends with an aide off camera saying: "Can we do one more take?" and Biden says: "Look, I'm very young, energetic, and handsome, what am I doing this for?" The ad shows that Biden is taking the gloves off and will go after Trump directly and by name and show video clips of Trump that make him look like a fool, but with humor.
Meanwhile, Trump appeared in Rome, GA, in the district of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R), with the congresswoman there to cheer him on. One issue Trump will harp on in Georgia is the killing of a Georgia college student, Laken Riley, by an undocumented immigrant. Trump will blame her death on Biden's immigration policies. But focusing on immigration may not be such a key issue in Georgia, which is not a hot spot for immigrants. Also, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) has not endorsed Trump and Trump hasn't made any attempt to win Haley voters.
Anyhow, this may be the first time both candidates have been in Georgia, but it certainly won't be the last time. Thank goodness the U.S. has a system where the voters of a state with 10 million people get lavished with attention while the voters of states with 20-40 million people are, outside of Florida, going to be ignored (except as piggy banks). (V)