LATIMES.COM WSCE MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019A
THE NATION
CROYDON, N.H. — Joe
Biden was whipping
through his stump speech at
a rustic lakeside camp-
ground here when he stum-
bled over the location of
where exactly he spoke a few
hours earlier at nearby Dart-
mouth College.
“I want to be clear, I’m
not going nuts,” Biden told
supporters perched on
camp chairs on the shore of
Loon Lake as the sun sank
behind him, turning the sky
sherbet shades of purple
and pink. “I’m not sure
whether it was the medical
school or where the hell I
spoke. But it was on the
campus.”
It was a minuscule mis-
statement. But Biden’s irri-
tation — he pointedly looked
at the media covering the
event as he corrected him-
self — was clear.
The former vice presi-
dent is the front-runner in
the 2020 Democratic presi-
dential race, yet he is facing
real questions about the fra-
gility of that status. Any mis-
step or gaffe sparks a flurry
of news coverage that under-
mines the premise of his
campaign: that he is the can-
didate best equipped to beat
President Trump.
Four months since he
launched his bid, Biden is in-
tensifying his campaign’s fo-
cus on the electability
argument. His first televi-
sion ad emphasizes polls
that show him beating
Trump. The candidate
stresses the point at cam-
paign events. Even his wife,
Jill, pointedly argued to
Democrats here that they
should vote for Biden even if
they liked another candi-
date better, because he had
the best chance of winning
next year.
The strategy takes a big
risk because it hinges not on
voters’ passion for Biden but
on their perception of his
ability to win — a strength
that could erode as voters
get to know some of his less
prominent rivals.
Biden’s aides defend
their emphasis. “We are ad-
vertising on what people
want to hear,” said one Bid-
en ally who asked not to be
named to discuss campaign
strategy. “We want voters to
know we understand that
what they care about is beat-
ing Trump, not ‘vote for me
and hold your nose.’ ”
But “when you have to
tell people you’re electable,
you’re probably not as elect-
able as you think you are,”
said Andrew Smith, a politi-
cal science professor at the
University of New Hamp-
shire.
Biden has led national
polls since entering the race,
including in the aftermath ofhis shaky performance dur-
ing the first debate, in June.
But his once-formidable
lead has shrunk, and the
question remains about how
much of his advantage
merely reflects name recog-
nition for a man who has
been in the public eye for
more than four decades.
Some of Biden’s rivals,
especially Sen. Elizabeth
Warren, have been gaining
strength and cutting into his
polling lead in the early
states in the nominating
process, attracting bigger
crowds and drawing more
media attention.
A Wall Street Journal/
NBC News poll released this
month found that feelings
about Biden were less in-
tense than about his top ri-
vals, Warren and Sen. Bernie
Sanders. Among Demo-
cratic primary voters, 56%
had positive feelings about
Biden — compared with 66%
who felt that way about
Sanders and 61% about War-
ren.
Increasingly, polling of
hypothetical general elec-
tion matchups shows that
Biden is not the only Demo-crat who could beat Trump.
That complicates the Biden
campaign’s emphasis on
polls that show him winning.
The prospect that others
could beat Trump could
shift the focus of debate
among primary candidates
from who can beat the presi-
dent to what kind of leader
the party wants to lead it to
victory in 2020.
The Biden campaign is
trying to guard against ero-
sion of his standing. They
have aggressively respond-
ed to reporting on gaffes. His
communications director
tweeted a photo of the over-
flow line at a Hanover, N.H.,
rally to counter the view that
he lacked an enthusiastic
following. Biden himself has
reached for more inspiring
rhetoric.
“We can’t just be a cam-
paign about defeating Presi-
dent Trump,” he said in
Keene, N.H. “A simple cam-
paign is not enough to beat
him. It has to be a move-
ment.”
Still, Biden’s recent
swing through this state,
which holds the first pri-
mary of the campaign sea-
son, shows the promise and
peril of adhering to a one-
note focus on electability.
“Day by day, we’re wit-
nessing a president of the
United States who’s becom-
ing more and more un-
hinged,” Biden said at an ap-
pearance in Croydon, pin-
pointing, as he has since his
campaign’s first moment,
the danger the country faces
from Trump.
“I wish this was just a
campaign slogan or some-
thing,” he said, “but folks, he
calls himself ‘the chosen
one.’ ”
Over the course of two
days, Biden spoke at three
events. He was rambling and
unfocused during a health-
care discussion in Hanover,
soothing and comforting inCroydon, defiant and ag-
gressive in Keene.
At each, some voters said
they were drawn to Biden
because of his long record of
public service, both as Presi-
dent Obama’s vice president
as well as his decades in the
Senate.
“All the other ones are
fabulous people. They’re all
very qualified. But I don’t
believe that they have the ex-
perience. I think Joe can
bring us together,” said Kris-
ten Thies, a graphic de-
signer in her 50s. “He’s the
only one who can do it.”
Others expressed reser-
vations.
“The answers were a little
bit rambling,” said Margaret
Rosenau, a 49-year-old
teacher who saw Biden
speak in Hanover and re-
mained undecided.
Biden made a number of
verbals missteps during the
campaign swing, including
declaring his affection for
Vermont while describing a
stop in New Hampshire and
an odd digression about how
the country might have re-
acted to an assassination of
then-Sen. Obama during
the 2008 campaign.
Rosenau said she dis-
counted such gaffes.
“I brush that kind of stuff
off. I appreciate people who
just talk freely,” she said.
“With that comes some
gaffes, some mistakes,” she
added. “I think because he’s
got that reputation, people
laser in on that.”
Others said they were im-
pressed by Biden precisely
because of low expectations.
Roger Meyers, 68, who
worked for General Electric
until he retired, said he had
been concerned about Bid-
en’s age and what he viewed
as a lack of specifics until
seeing him speak in Croy-
don.
“I can live without policy,”
Meyers said, “if we can havestability and sanity and rea-
sonableness and not white
supremacy.”
Biden’s age, 76, was re-
peatedly raised by voters as
a concern. He brushed aside
the issue when asked about
it by reporters. “I say if
they’re concerned, don’t
vote for me,” Biden said.
Biden’s wife last week
made the bluntest case yet
in a “hold your nose” pitch to
voters when she said at a
New Hampshire campaign
event that, to beat Trump,
Democrats should vote for
her husband even if they pre-
ferred another candidate’s
positions.
“You may like another
candidate better,” Jill Biden
said, “but you have to look at
who is going to win.”
That’s a pitch that has a
receptive audience among
some Democratic activists.
“The existential question
for us is whether our nomi-
nee is going to be able to de-
feat Trump,” said Stuart Ap-
pelbaum, a member of the
Democratic National Com-
mittee’s executive commit-
tee and an official of the
United Food & Commercial
Workers Union, who is neu-
tral in the race.
“This is a different nomi-
nating process than we’ve
had in the past, because the
threat to our security is so
dramatic that we have to
save our democracy.”
Robin Wittemann, 57, de-
scribed herself as torn be-
tween Biden and Sanders.
“It’s sensible versus
heart. Biden’s sensible.
Bernie’s heart,” she said.
“It’s a hard choice. But de-
feating Trump is priority No.- ”
Mehta reported from New
Hampshire and Hook from
Washington, D.C. Times
staff writer Michael
Finnegan in San Francisco
contributed to this report.Biden’s electability holds promise, peril
JOE BIDEN has led polls since entering the Demo-
cratic race, but his once-formidable lead has shrunk.Michael DwyerAssociated PressFront-runner insists he
is Democrats’ best bet
to take down Trump.
By Seema Mehta
and Janet Hook
■■■ ELECTION 2020 ■■■
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