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Biden goes in search of a bully pulpit
Politico ^ | 03/23/2020 07:39 PM EDT Updated: 03/23/2020 08:41 PM EDT | MARC CAPUTO

Posted on 03/23/2020 9:19:26 PM PDT by conservative98

Joe Biden doesn’t occupy a political office, isn’t a great orator and is basically stuck in his house.

It’s not much of a platform for projecting leadership during the coronavirus crisis.

That was laid bare Monday as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee gave his first coronavirus shadow briefing webcast. Biden’s been outgunned by President Donald Trump and outshone by some of the nation’s governors, among them New York’s Andrew Cuomo, whose crisis response efforts are drawing rave reviews.

The former vice president was staid and somber, even as his remarks were marred by a few minor real-time snafus and slip-ups. The lighting in his newly converted home studio was subpar. The webcast time, 10:30 a.m., came an hour earlier than Biden had originally said the day before — ensuring a relatively small audience for a candidate who hadn’t shown his face in nearly a week.

It wasn’t riveting TV. And the speech barely made a blip.

“The problem is Joe Biden doesn’t have a bully pulpit,” said George Arzt, a veteran Democratic consultant who has counted Cuomo among his clients.

Without the trappings of office, Biden has faded from the national stage as the coronavirus contagion chews through news cycle after news cycle. And without the actual authority that accompanies public office, he can’t make dramatic moves to muster the power of the government to make sweeping decisions that affect millions. It’s left him straining to remain relevant amid Trump’s daily briefings — carried live on cable television each afternoon.

Add in the national media’s inherent geographical bias for its home base of New York — where Cuomo and even New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have occupied oversize roles in national coverage — and it’s left Biden struggling to break through.

“For Biden, the other difficulty is wedging himself into that,” Arzt said. “And you can’t easily wedge yourself into a crisis situation, other than say what you would do as president or say the president isn’t doing enough. But he could look very political.”

Trump’s campaign has accused Biden of just that, as well as undermining the president, who has gained ground in the polls since he started daily White House press briefings. But Biden campaign advisers reject the criticism, saying that Trump’s news conferences do more harm than good to the president, and the country.

Biden lauded Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, who has won plaudits for his steady-as-he-goes leadership and serving as a foil to a sometimes erratic Trump.

“New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s briefings are a lesson in leadership,” Biden said Monday. “Republicans and Democrats all are rising to the moment, putting aside politics to do what has to be done. But they’re looking to the federal government for more help.”

Cuomo was one of seven governors Biden singled out for praise, attempting to put a bipartisan sheen on his remarks by including three Republicans. Yet even there, he had a minor stumble, mistakenly calling Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker “Charlie Parker.”

Few who watched Biden’s briefing saw it as equivalent counterprogramming to Monday’s White House briefing, which featured the president, Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William Barr and White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, among others. Most other times, that briefing has featured Anthony Fauci, the highly respected director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Accustomed to speaking from behind a lectern, Biden decided to have one placed in the middle of his new home studio — an awkward fit amid the backdrop of bookshelves and personal pictures framed beneath a living room table lamp.

There were hiccups that showed the telltale signs of a 77-year-old candidate adjusting to a campaign that’s gone completely online in a matter of days. At the start of the webcast, Biden wasn’t sure when he was live. A few minutes in, his teleprompter appeared to have broken as he tried, but failed, to gesture beneath the camera shot for an unseen aide to hand him notes.

“The lectern in a living room look was really odd — nobody would do that in real life, so it shouldn't be done on social,” said Kevin Cate, former media strategist for one of Biden’s past opponents, Tom Steyer.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: biden; bidenpresser; gaffe; livingroom; livingroompodium; marccaputo
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1 posted on 03/23/2020 9:19:26 PM PDT by conservative98
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To: conservative98

Stand in the bathtub.


2 posted on 03/23/2020 9:21:28 PM PDT by headstamp 2 (There's a stairway to heaven, but there's also a highway to hell.)
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To: headstamp 2

it’s not about Biden. it’s all about CUOMO. when FakeNewsMSM joins forces, they are relentless in staying on message.


3 posted on 03/23/2020 9:28:32 PM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: headstamp 2

With the shower running and your hair dryer in your hand plugged in on hi! Rock it Joe! Busta Move.


4 posted on 03/23/2020 9:28:57 PM PDT by Equine1952
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To: conservative98

Starts talking at 3:44 https://youtu.be/MbNk-ryOEE4

10:07 starts with hand motions to unseen aide

That is all I could take.


5 posted on 03/23/2020 9:37:28 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: PghBaldy

If you were a Democrat and looking for a confidence-measure, Joe delivered a one-star moment. Imagine that two or three times a week.


6 posted on 03/23/2020 9:47:53 PM PDT by pepsionice
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To: conservative98

Things don’t look good for Demented Slow Joe when you have lost a rabid leftist website named for polluting journalism.


7 posted on 03/23/2020 9:48:14 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: headstamp 2

...and hand him a hair drier.


8 posted on 03/23/2020 9:49:16 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: conservative98

He’s fortunate that he’s out of the spotlight. What would he do with a bully pulpit? Shadup and siddown, Joe.


9 posted on 03/23/2020 9:51:50 PM PDT by Eleutheria5 ("SHUT UP!" he explained.)
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To: conservative98

“Biden wasn’t sure when he was live.”

tap,tap,tap ... is this thing on? ... tap, tap, tap ...


10 posted on 03/23/2020 9:59:59 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Eleutheria5

“He’s fortunate that he’s out of the spotlight.”

exactly ... the strings would be too visible in the spotlight ...


11 posted on 03/23/2020 10:04:00 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: conservative98

Biden still leading on the polls. The rat plan is use the MSM to bash Trump, and hide Biden.


12 posted on 03/23/2020 10:08:57 PM PDT by Fido969 (In!)
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To: conservative98
 
 
Max Headcase 2020
 
 
Paranoimia,
 
Paranoimia,
 
Paranoimia..
 
 

13 posted on 03/23/2020 10:46:53 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: conservative98

Aside from Biden’s cringe-worthy performance, the setting itself, with a podium in the middle of his library, looked comically absurd. Maybe he could completely jump the shark by hanging a home-made seal on the podium that says, “Office of the Presumptive Democrat Nominee.”


14 posted on 03/24/2020 12:17:22 AM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.`)
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To: MAGAthon

Yep, this article was a vehicle to position Cuomo into the race. Watch the corrupt MSM start harmonizing their focus on Cuomo.


15 posted on 03/24/2020 1:46:31 AM PDT by Obadiah (Kill the deep state or lose the Republic.)
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To: conservative98

When he finds a bully pulpit, he forgets what a bully is and the same regarding a pulpit.


16 posted on 03/24/2020 3:33:37 AM PDT by stevem
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To: catnipman

I’m not sure Slow Joe is sure he is ALIVE, period.


17 posted on 03/24/2020 4:55:18 AM PDT by Hardastarboard (Three most annoying words on the internet - "Watch the video")
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To: conservative98

Cuomo ramblings are NOT a lesson in leadership.


18 posted on 03/24/2020 5:21:23 AM PDT by griswold3 (Democratic Socialism is Slavery by Mob Rule)
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To: PghBaldy

LOL did you see the comment? The likes were 800, the dislikes were 2.3K.


19 posted on 03/24/2020 5:28:27 AM PDT by mware (RETIRED)
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To: All
Biden's bafflegabbing b/c he knows he needs to erase the name "Hunter" from his political history.....
and he desperately needs to shield the greedy Biden family from further scrutiny.....

The Bidens are lying in wait like common criminals to cash in bigtime.

============================================

Hunter Biden was chronically unemployed and got tossed out of the Navy for drug abuse.....he owed for child support, and spent bigtime on strippers, drugs, prosties, according to divorce papers. Nonetheless, riding his father's politial connections, loser Hunter scored bigtime, milking globalism for all it was worth.

Joe Biden used his political connections to sell his son to the highest bidders.....the entire greedy Biden family followed suit.

Dam Breaks: Establishment Media Zone in on Biden Family’s Culture of Corruption....
BreitBart ^ | 1/29/2020 | HARIS ALIC / FR Posted on 1/29/2020, 1:32:01 PM by caww

Politico published in-depth exposé on financial ties between the former VP'S younger brother, James, and a high-powered D.C. lobbyist.

<><> James Biden and his wife purchased an acre of land in the Virgin Islands for $150,000 in May 2005. A year later, James resold 1/3rd of that acre to Scott Green, a 'national security lobbyist who formerly served a Senate staffer for Joe Biden. Green paid $150,000 for the land, even though tax assessed value was only $38,000. “In effect, James got their money back while keeping most of the land—recouping their investment in just 12 months.

Any money that Green may have lost through the deal was offset when Joe Biden became vice president.

<><> In 2010 Green and members of the lobbying firm he founded, "the Lafayette Group," were frequent visitors at the Obama-Biden White House.

<><> Green’s ties to the Biden clan seemed to be especially beneficial. On April 11, 2010, the Lafayette Group was awarded two taxpayer-funded contracts from FEMA worth a total of $5.8 million.ed.

Other members of the Biden family did just as well.

<><> Biden’s brother, Frank, benefited from $54 million in taxpayer-backed loans to Caribbean nations heavily involved in real estate and solar power projects he was pursuing in the region. ...even though he lacked a background in solar energy or international real estate development.

<><> Similarly, Biden's sister, Valerie, received millions in fees during the 2008 election. Valerie, was campaign manager for her brother’s failed presidential campaign that year; she paid her own consulting firm, Joe Slade White & Company, $2.5 million for its services.

(More Biden finagling in article.......at breitbart.com)

20 posted on 03/24/2020 6:44:39 AM PDT by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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