Standard-Bearers Have Two Different Standards: Biden and Trump Are Not Treated the Same
Welp, it’s official. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — both of whom are unpopular and underwater in terms of favorability among Americans — are going to be our two major party choices for president.
Congrats, America?
On Tuesday night both Biden and Trump clinched enough delegates to become the presumptive nominees of their parties and will await their conventions to be formally nominated.
But who starts this next phase of what will be an excruciatingly long slog of a campaign in the better position? That’s up to interpretation.
Democrats are celebrating a strong State of the Union performance by Biden last week, which — at least for the moment — allayed fears that he is coming across as too old for the job. (He is, as most people who don’t work for Biden will tell you.)
Democrats also believe Biden has the upper hand when it comes to money. Here, they’re not wrong — Biden, the Democratic National Committee, and groups who support him have far out-raised those supporting Trump, who is also bleeding cash due to his many ongoing lawsuits, legal fees and legal fines.
And there are the issues. Democrats believe earnestly — just ask them — that Biden’s economy is improving by the day. At his SOTU address, he even boasted that the U.S. economy is the “envy of the world.”
But don’t tell that to U.S. voters, who disagree. Whatever bright spots there are, they’re not translating to approval, nor do voters believe Biden’s economy is better than Trump’s was.
Democrats also feel good about the issue of women’s reproductive health — and they should. Republicans’ efforts to ban or limit access to abortions and in vitro fertilization have not endeared them to a majority of voters. And Democrats reaped the benefits in the 2022 midterms.
Finally, Democrats are hoping to take another winning midterm message — democracy — out for a spin again, as Trump is parading his adoration for autocrats. A fan boy for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a guy who’s promising to behave like a dictator the second he gets back into the White House, and someone who is still lying about the last election he lost is helping Democrats drum home that message on a daily basis.
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