“Yes, we can.”
- Joe Biden is a Pennsylvania native, and the Keystone State is a key swing state that the Dems need back in their column. Moreover, Pennsylvania is also home to Gettysburg. For obvious reasons, it made good strategic sense to stage a Biden speech near the iconic Civil War battlefield that still serves as the ultimate symbol of a country divided. It was the spot-on site for a candidate, not unlike Abraham Lincoln, calling for national unity amid a crisis. “Today, once again, we are a house divided,” said Biden, invoking Lincoln.
The analogy is all too apt. Nineteenth century secession and a devastating civil war is the existential counterpart of a 21st century era rife with ruinous partisanship, autocratic leadership, racial upheaval and economic crisis–plus a pandemic and planet-threatening climate change. We can not afford an incompetent, negligent, immoral authoritarian wannabe with the country—and planet—at an onerous inflection point. Who the president is matters no less in 2020 than it did in 1863. “Instead of treating each other’s party as the opposition, we treat them as the enemy,” said Biden during his 22-minute, outdoor speech. “This must end.”
Yes, Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes are critical for both parties, but winning the “battle for the soul of the nation” is far more important. A pandemic can’t be a partisan political issue. Neither can global warming. Nor racial equality. This must end.
- Polls consistently show Biden with a substantial national lead over Trump. More notable than most is Rasmussen Reports, a favorite, go-to pollster for the Trump campaign, that has Biden with a double-digit lead.
- As a female candidate of color, Kamala Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, could make obvious history—and help the cause to win back Florida, the mega swing state with myriad diverse-minority communities. Among them: more than 300,000 Jamaicans. And it matters that Harris’ chief of staff is the media-savvy Karine Jean-Pierre, a black woman born in Martinique to Haitian parents. It also helps that the Biden campaign’s senior adviser for Florida is Karen Andre, a first-generation Haitian-American.
- “If Joe Biden wins big, part of the reason…will be simply that he is normal. And people miss normal so much.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.