Biden’s Clever Strategy Against Trump Could Pay Off

While the sitting president is currently doing everything to self-destruct, Biden, in contrast, is presenting the image of a man who not lost sight of what is important.

In his televised debate with President Donald Trump, Joe Biden again proved that he can be less exciting than watching fireplace logs burn. In other words, Biden has once again done everything right. His strategy of trying to sneak into the White House and fly under the radar is perfect. And no, that is not intended to be as derisive as it may sound.

On Thursday, Biden and Trump appeared simultaneously at town halls on television and took audience questions. The second debate had been scheduled for that time, but was canceled after Trump tested positive for COVID-19. In response, Biden scheduled an event in Philadelphia, and of course it did not take long until Trump’s team organized a competing event in Miami. So, there was a kind of debate, just with significant social distancing – more than 1,600 km (approximately 994 miles) separate the two cities.

Biden emerged from this debate as the clear winner, which had to do with Trump more than anything else. The president just ran amok through his event; he got angry when he did not like the questions, and persistently refused to utter even one critical word about the crazy conspiracy cult QAnon. The moderator let him know what she thought; she didn’t understand, she said. He is the president after all, not someone’s crazy uncle. And it was pretty funny when his niece, Mary Trump, who recently published a very critical book about the president, did not appear to hesitate when she confirmed that Trump really is someone’s crazy uncle.

So, while Trump was again talking his head off in Miami, Biden was the image of calm in Philadelphia. Biden never raised his voice. Some of his answers were so long and so specific that one had the impression Biden was reading a detailed chapter about the more intricate intricacies of whale hunting from “Moby Dick.” After all, he was aware that Trump was appearing in a town hall at the same time and that it hardly mattered what he said. The president is conducting a campaign largely on Biden’s behalf and is just self-destructing increasingly more energetically as Election Day approaches. “Just let Trump be Trump,” preached Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign adviser in 2016. Biden’s team has adopted exactly that strategy in 2020.

It would be unfair to say that the challenger said nothing of substance during the town hall. Biden was especially strong not when he spoke on policy, but when he discussed issues like decency and morality. Then it became apparent that there was a man who is serious about these subjects, a politician who acts on his convictions. Of course, the will for power lives in every politician, but Biden gives the impression of someone who does not lose sight of what is important despite that drive. If he does indeed win the election on Nov. 3, it will have been because he conducted his campaign according to a principle that Trump will never understand: less is more.