Trump endorsement note, Biden speech: 2020 campaign highlights

Welcome to our weekly review of the state of the 2020 campaign.

The week in numbers

• 21.8 million people watched Biden’s Big Night at the convention on TV on Thursday, according to Nielsen, a little more than the 21 million who watched former President Barack Obama and Senator Kamala Harris, Mr. Biden’s running mate, on Wednesday. TV viewing for the candidate’s speech was down about 21% from Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech four years ago, although many people watched online.

• A new Gallup poll puts President Trump’s approval rating at 42 percent. The American approval of his management of the economy – usually his strong point – was 48 percent, roughly equal to his June figures, but 15 percentage points of his career in winter, just before the pandemic hit.

• Pollsters mostly halted their work during the convention, waiting for things to happen before resuming a new reading of the country. But earlier this week, three separate polls conducted by respected media showed Biden leading Trump on average by eight points.

Catch me

Democrats let out a collective sigh of relief this week after the party hosted an all-virtual convention, half political music video and half Joe Biden infomercial, largely without a hitch.

And whether you liked the content of Mr. Biden’s acceptance speech or found yourself oblivious to his message, one thing was clear: he exceeded the low expectations set in part by his opponent in the general election.

Joe Biden’s account of the Republican Party is a blunder machine whose age has made him unable to speak clearly, a caricature built on months of Mr. Trump’s tweets, dozens of interviews with his allies and roasts nocturnal by popular conservative media figures. The Joe Biden that many Americans saw this week was clear and able to command an audience, even reading from a teleprompter in a largely empty room.

If that’s a low bar, it’s because Mr. Trump and some of his most important allies have helped lower it.

Outside advisers have tried to warn Mr Trump that he must raise the expectations of his opponents while lowering them for himself. But that hasn’t stopped the president from bragging to people that he expects the fall debates to be a murderous experience for his opponent. Mr. Trump was eager to present himself as an underdog four years ago, but this time his campaign has sought to project an image of domination, in a way that is not always helpful.

• At the June presidential rally in Tulsa, Okla., Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, broke a cardinal rule of policy: underestimate crowd size to overcast. Instead, he made Mr. Trump silly when only 6,200 people showed up at an event that Mr. Parscale claimed had a million requests for tickets.

• Instead of saying how Mr. Biden could be a formidable opponent on the debate stage, Mr. Trump and his advisers have for the most part done the opposite. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, recently claimed there was “active pressure not to debate my father Joe Biden” because he feared he might not be able to handle the game .

• Jason Miller, a campaign strategist, tried to change course on how the Trump team frames Mr. Biden. “Joe Biden is actually a very good debater,” he told the Washington Post this month. But after all of Mr. Biden’s bashing, a single comment from an agent didn’t do much to reset the narrative.

Biden is aiming for the center, not the left

There was an element of choosing your own adventure for speakers at the Democratic convention. Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have made political arguments, while current and former Republicans have pleaded for decency. But throughout the week, the focus was clearly on winning over ideological moderates and skeptical Trump voters – a priority of persuasion over rallying the base.

Consider this:

• John Kasich, Republican and former Governor of Ohio, responded to fears that Mr Biden would rule in the interests of the party’s left. “I’m sure there are Republicans and Independents who couldn’t imagine coming across to support a Democrat,” he said. “They’re worried that Joe will turn sharply left and leave them behind. I do not believe it. Because I know the measure of man – reasonable, faithful, respectful. And you know, nobody pushes Joe.

• Mr. Biden built his acceptance speech to get out of partisanship explicitly. “Even if I will be the Democratic candidate, I will be the American president,” he said. “I will work as hard for those who didn’t support me as I do for those who did.”

• During the convention, a key Biden adviser brought up the idea of ​​deficit spending on new programs. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, former Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman, who oversees Mr. Biden’s transition team, said it was difficult to envision any major new spending programs in 2021. “ When you see what Trump has done to the deficit, “He said, citing the president’s tax cuts on top of virus-fighting spending,” we’re going to be limited. “

What will the Republican convention look like?

Biden’s granddaughters were adorable. Shorter speeches were effective. The travelogue’s appeal made for an eerily good television. And by responding to “Where’s the hunter?” The battle cry with video testimony from Biden’s once temperamental son has been delicately addressed.

These are concessions that advisers to Trump and former White House officials handed to the Democratic National Committee after hosting the first-ever virtual convention, even as they challenged the overall message of the week.

The question is how can they overcome this? The answer may be that it is difficult.

• Republican officials lost time this could have been used to plan a highly produced semi-virtual convention trying – for much longer than Democrats – to pull off a normal one. Mr. Trump abandoned his plans for an in-person convention in Jacksonville, Fla., Just a month before the event’s scheduled date.

• Instead of handing over the reins to an experienced television producer, Mr. Trump himself tries to influence much of the programming, mostly with the help of people from his own White House. And he insists that it still looks like a “real convention” on television, that is, with an audience share, and to play a major role himself every night.

• The four nights of the DNC at the showcase of diversity Democratic Party is also increasing pressure on the Republican National Committee and Mr. Trump to do more than appeal to aggrieved white voters. Republican officials plan to spotlight Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the white St. Louis couple who raised guns against Black Lives Matter protesters in June. Will they have a message for people other than the president’s hard core?

What you might have missed

Giovanni Russonello contributed reporting.