The only reason to visit a state for a campaign stop is to get the fawning local media hits.
After all, it’s not like any statistical sampling of the nearly 6 million Wisconsin residents will get to actually SEE the president, and those who do will all be devoted supporters.
Your visit is about stroking the local media, which will amplify your message and link the candidate to the state.
Things are so bad, though, for the president’s campaign that his team is booting the locals from their campaign trip.
Currently waiting for Air Force One arrival at the Dane County Regional Airport.
A small group of local reporters (including me) were set to travel with President Biden to a handful of other stops today. We’ve now been told we don’t have transportation and won’t be doing so.
— Jessie Opoien (@jessieopie) July 5, 2024
Yikes.
Not only is the campaign freezing out the local media, they are actually pissing them off. Promise them a benefit and take it away? That is about as good a formula for bad coverage as you can devise. It amps up the current Narrative™ that Biden’s brain is frozen to 11.
Signs spotted along Biden’s drive from the airport to his speech in Madison, per pool:
“Save your legacy, drop out.”
“Three generations for Biden.”— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) July 5, 2024
It’s not like things can get much worse for the president in terms of messaging, of course, and no doubt the White House is performing triage. They have a snow job to perform on George Snuffleupagus, and you can only use so much Adderall in one day.
But this goes to show why there is literally nothing the White House can do to recover from this long-term. for every “good” event or “good enough” day, there will be many more bad ones. And every bad one will build the narrative (which is buttressed by being true) that Biden is incapable of doing the job.
Biden as a candidate is toast, although he might hang onto his spot on the ticket. Now, the big question for him is not whether he will be president on January 21st next year but whether he will be on August 1st this year.
I have no idea, but I would bet “yes.” Not much, of course, since the always unpredictable world of politics is now in total chaos, and chaos is by its nature unpredictable. But we are paid to do so; that is my guess.
.@RepMarkPocan ahead of Biden speaking in Madison: “It’s gonna come down to a few states, and Wisconsin is one of those states. And don’t think for a second that this is gonna be easy. Just in the last week, some say that the snow globe of the election has been shaken. But you…
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) July 5, 2024
Democrat politicians have been, for the most part, sticking with the president in public, but every one of them could reverse course in a heartbeat.
Normally I would ignore a presidential interview, but I admit that I will be glued to ABC tonight. They have an entire 1/2 hour! blocked off for the interview, and I bet it turns out to be less than that on air.
The have Jeopardy! on after that, I saw. Irony.
All we can do is stay tuned.
