Biden's limited exhibition campaign: how long can it last?



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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Plans to enjoy ice cream with New Hampshire voters to celebrate Memorial Day. He will be close to former Congressman John Delaney, another presidential candidate on his 19th state tour, planning a route that includes four barbecues, a parade and a wreath.

In Iowa, Senator Cory Booker (DN.J.) crosses cornfields in a motorhome, while Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (DN.Y.) unveils a "Charter of Family Rights" and visit an ethanol plant.

And here's the agenda of former Vice President Joe Biden for the holiday weekend, according to his campaign: "Joe Biden does not have any scheduled public events."

These seven words become familiar to the Biden team. Aside from a campaign spurt just after announcing his candidacy, Biden kept his head down while his rivals rushed from one state to the other. Even when he has organized public events, these have included only a handful of questions from voters or reporters.

The light public calendar reflects the unique position of his campaign, advisers said: With almost universal name recognition and high favorable scores among Democrats, the former vice president does not need to present to voters like almost all other candidates. And as the leader of the first polls, he can get media attention without incident.

But there are risks. Voters from the first primary states – particularly Iowa, with its caucus system that rewards the organization on the ground – want to see the candidates personally and often. And there is a risk that Biden's program reinforces a word that President Trump is already using to describe his candidacy: sleepy.

Biden's campaign says it's not going to happen. "I'm not afraid, no voter leaves a Joe Biden event with doubts about his energy," said Kate Bedingfield, his assistant campaign manager. "They will see him wherever he goes."

Biden spends from 30 minutes to an hour to greet voters on a rope line after his public events, Bedingfield said.

But after a brief activity in the first primary states, his program of the past two weeks has been mainly fundraising, which, although publicly announced and monitored by a pool reporter, is quite different from open campaign events. .

It is unclear how long Biden can continue to limit its public visibility in this way. The first democratic debate will take place on June 26 and 27 and Biden will share the stage with nine rivals and a moderator, each eager to force him to defend his positions and record. Other debates ensue, as influential groups, ranging from unions to ethnic organizations, organize multicandidate events and may not want to be ignored.

For the moment, however, the strategy seems to work. The launch of Biden's carefully designed three-part campaign went off without a hitch, and polls to date have given him a comfortable lead in the fractured group of 23 Democratic candidates.

Some Democratic strategists say Biden, 76, could limit his participation in freewheeling campaign sessions to minimize the fact that he is older than the figure they could remember.

"Voters are throwing themselves into events with him waiting to receive" Uncle Joe ", but they came forward after seeing" Joe's grandfather, "said Rebecca Katz, a Democratic strategist who favors Liberal candidates but does not work for a presidential campaign.

According to her, Biden benefits from his association with former President Barack Obama, who remains popular with many Democrats. "The more people see him live in 2019, the more they will realize that he might not be the guy from 2008," Katz said.

Since entering the race four weeks ago, Biden has organized 11 public events, according to his campaign. Former Congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas held nearly four times that number during the same period, according to schedule. And Gillibrand, who is lagging behind in polls, has scheduled 11 stops in Iowa just on holiday weekends.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Showed her face to the public on 27 occasions during the four weeks following Biden's entry into the race. Booker has organized at least 27 events during the same period and Sanders has announced at least 17 engagements.

And with the exception of O'Rourke – and unlike Biden – all of these candidates hold a full-time position in the Senate that keeps them tied up in Washington most weeks.

Councilors say Biden's public calendar reflects a thoughtful strategic choice. The candidate's time is better spent on vital but less public activities, such as fundraising, individual appeals, policy development, and campaign infrastructure.

"It's really an advantage that it can measure itself and make important events, rather than doing events that are traditionally used to prove oneself," said Larry Rasky, who worked on Biden's previous presidential campaigns but has no official role to play this time. "He's in a different place than the other candidates."

Until now, Biden has managed to make a name for itself on multicandidate forums sponsored by various interest groups, which have become a vital part of the first campaign of his rivals. They have allowed some hopefuls to show their political choices to a committed audience and generate buzz and dynamism.

Organizers of MoveOn, a group of prominent Liberal activists, said Biden would not participate in their Big Ideas forum next weekend in San Francisco, which will feature eight other candidates. And he answered "no" to the convention of the Democratic Party of California the same weekend, which will host 14 candidates.

As for the Iowa Democratic Party dinner next month, 17 candidates have announced their coming, but not Biden. And he also forwarded the Black Economic Alliance's most exclusive presidential forum in Charleston, S.C., which sent only seven invitations, according to organizers.

Similarly, cable networks have organized open discussion sessions where voters can interview individual candidates one hour at a time. Biden has given no indication that he plans to take part in any of them.

Some activists fear that by skipping such forums, Biden may avoid being in the details of policies such as trade, health care, the environment and criminal justice. But Biden's team says he's just paying attention to choosing the right sites.

"There is a lot," Bedingfield said of the sessions. "Event organizers naturally try to create the feeling that missing their event is the biggest mistake that a candidate can make. But there are countless numbers each week, and you have to be smart about how you spend your time and where you are going. "

Bedingfield said Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, were planning to attend a town hall organized at the end of next month by the American Federation of Teachers, a powerful union that organizes events across the country for all Democratic candidates for the presidency.

"I do not think any voter or activist has any questions about Joe Biden's position on any issue," she said. "His calendar is and will be determined by the fact that he speaks in his own words of his political positions and his vision of the country."

Some former campaign veterans have stated that limiting public exposure may have the opposite effect, limiting a candidate's ability to set the terms of the discussion. When a candidate is not a lot in public, they said, the pressure rises so that each word, each pause and each gesture are scrutinized with a magnifying glass, sometimes in a manner not in accordance with their intention.

"The advantage of the leaders is that they will always be covered," said Robby Mook, who was the head of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. "The curse of being always covered is that it's not always what you want."

In such cases, said Mook, the coverage tends to focus on the process and the candidate's results in the polls. "It can be difficult to stay focused on what you want to talk about," he said.

At the same time, Democratic leaders in major campaign countries have found that Biden is not as popular as the other candidates.

"He was here the first day, for his first event," said Bret Nilles, president of the Linn County Democrats in Iowa. "But other than that, we have not really heard of him at all."

In a sense, Biden, who first ran for president in 1988, has been campaigning for decades and some Democrats say it relieves much of the pressure.

"We have not seen Joe Biden yet. He has a lot of history here, though, "said Sarah Mahler, president of the Washoe County Democratic Party in Nevada. "Many of us have our photos with him, or a story with him."

Dan Balz contributed to this report.

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