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A new campaign manager for Trump 2020 may be just what is needed to help reverse low poll numbers, bad optics, and refresh this campaign. Will this save us from a Biden presidency?
The most recent polls show that Trump is significantly trailing Biden. In, “Biden Beats Trump on Economy in New Poll” Newsweek writes,
Trump’s strongest card, the economy, shredded by a killer virus, may have left the president with no go—to issue or trait to stave off defeat,”
He’s trailing in major categories and, according to polling aggregate FiveThirtyEight.com, his disapproval rating varies between +2-+27%. While polling data can be skewed, FiveThirtyEight also shares bias of each polling group. So it isn’t enough to say that the polling is biased against the President, when polling organizations that lean conservative are still “+” in the disapproval column.
Is this previous campaign manager to blame? Trump must think so. Brad Parscale wrote in a recent Washington Post opinion piece, “Trump is beating Biden on the most important factor in this campaign“,
And when it comes to the most important factor, enthusiasm, President Trump is dominating. The unprecedented enthusiasm behind the president’s reelection efforts stands in stark contrast to the flat, almost nonexistent enthusiasm for Biden.”
Unfortunately, the numbers don’t support that assertion. In fact, according to FiveThirtyEight. com, any advantage Trump enjoys in enthusiasm is countered in excitement by people to vote against him.
while Biden voters may not be all that excited about voting for Biden, they’re very enthusiastic about voting against Trump. And that gives Biden a pretty strong edge, because Trump supporters don’t despise Biden the way they despised Hillary Clinton in 2016.”
And concludes,
Registered voters with negative opinions of both Trump and Biden preferred Biden to Trump by a whopping 23-point margin in the polling Nationscape conducted in June. They also rated Biden less negatively overall, with only 33 percent of this group saying they had a very unfavorable opinion of Biden compared to 62 percent who said the same of Trump.”
A president with a booming economy, has tremendous leeway. Citizens will overlook a lot of undesirable characteristics and failings when their pockets have cash, and their retirement plans are growing. Bill Clinton’s campaign strategist, James Carville, coined the infamous, “the economy stupid!” line.
He was right then, and still is today.
Trump had a raging economy. Before COVID forced the abrupt shutdown of the world. Unfortunately, the economy was his ace, in an otherwise subtle hand. Americans of all colors and classes were the beneficiaries of low unemployment, growing wages, and hope for a brighter future. The government had record tax receipts, and looked well on its way to restoring the economy. Remarkable accomplishments in any administration, but especially so in one that came from outside the DC bubble (and has some internal “bumps”).
Along with the lagging economy and rising unemployment, there is a serious push for social, cultural, and governmental change. I can’t think of another president who has had to deal with such a rapid and diverse set of issues under the hyper-partisan media microscope.
Or another president who has done it so poorly. Trump needs a social media manager, a crisis manager, and a publicist. Each one responsible for blocking his access from twitter and the news. A 300 pound Zen master, Sumo wrestler to blockade him from rash responses to every criticism. Really. He’s his own worst enemy and provides far too much ammunition to his detractors.
Crap like this is unnecessary. Especially during a crisis.
No matter how we feel about COVID responses, we are each directly impacted by them. I have three kids who may or may not return for in person school this year. I’m stressed about managing their schooling from home, especially when our decision to send them back was usurped by the local medial authority for our county. Aside from this, I have it comparatively easy. There is no concern about job security or a paycheck, or funding my IRA and the kids 529 plans.
But it doesn’t mean I want to watch my president pick a fight over a can of beans. I know he can’t directly fix my issues, but I’d like to think he’s doing more than tweeting out pop-shots at his detractors. Optics are important. Maybe he needs to remember this Maya Angelou quote, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Please, Mr. President, remember the big middle of the road voters. Stop making it so hard to justify voting for you. Be the president I WANT to vote for, with more purpose than just stopping Creepy Joe.
Bill Stepien is a veteran political operative, used to larger than life politicians, and has many successful national and state elections to his credit.
And he comes with some baggage. Most notably New Jersey’s “Bridgegate” under Chris Christie. Fox News reports,
Christie removed Stepien just days after naming him New Jersey’s GOP chairman in January 2014 in connection with the “Bridgegate” scandal, which involved traffic-causing lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in an act of political revenge.”
Remember the optics? Trump has some history with previous campaign managers (Paul Manafort, and Corey Lewandowski) being portrayed as underhanded, and even criminal. The media is biased, and they are going to latch on to Stepien’s issues during his time in New Jersey. When entire groups of people (the media) are working against you, it’s important to stay above reproach.
Stepien, in May 2020, was promoted from a senior political adviser on the campaign, to deputy campaign manager under Parscale. Hopefully the campaign will benefit from his history and experience, while looking at it with a refreshed perspective to shift into a winning direction.
Please.
We wish you the best of luck, and really don’t want to spend the next 4 years writing about Gropin’ Joe Biden and his Co-President, Perfecta’ Vagena O’Color.
Featured Image: Official WH Portrait via WikiMedia. License: Public Domain Image Croppped 400×400
Taylor says: He is running an inept re-election campaign and wastes his time over nonsense. In one of his rallies he spent 30 minutes talking about having to salute 600 times at West Point and the difficulty of walking down a steep incline. He thinks he is smarter than anyone else and interjecting himself into the Bubba Wallace “noose” incident by saying he should apologize shows he has zero impulse control. Right now it is going to take a miracle to beat Biden the Dope.
As I stated below, I think Biden’s greatest asset is his silence. COVID restrictions has done more to help his campaign than any political guru ever could. Even his scripted and curated basement musings are rife with signs of his mental shift. But the people who will come out to vote against Trump, not for Biden, need to be taken into account. What harm comes from making a candidate a bit more appealing to the middle section of voters? None.
Quentin Q. Quill says: Is it really a surprise that Trump is running an inept campaign? One of the main advantages Trump had last election was the extreme dislike many people had for Hillary Clinton. This time around Trump’s opponent, Biden, isn’t nearly as disliked among voters who don’t favor either candidate and among voters who dislike both candidates. In other words, there are voters who dislike Biden, but the dislike for Biden isn’t as wide and deep as it was fro Clinton. Without a very disliked opponent, Trump has had a harder time campaigning because there just isn’t nearly as much built in animosity towards Biden as there was towards Clinton. Trump is good at bashing other people, but he isn’t nearly as good as proposing what he will do to move the country in a positive direction. Without numerous rallies, Trump’s campaign may also suffer. For all of his complaints about the mainstream media, the mainstream media gave Trump tons of free publicity by airing his rallies during the last election. It not only looks like there will be less rallies, but that he mainstream media is less likely to broadcast them as much as they did in the past election.
I agree with the writer that Trump is facing many challenges under a media microscope and that he is failing in his responses.Is this because Trump is now almost entirely surrounded by people who won’t tell him things he doesn’t want to hear? On the other hand, his staff sometimes seems to be just as tone deaf as Trump is. Take Ivanka’s poorly considered photo op with a can of black beans, for example. She looks ridiculous in her billowy white blouse holding a can of beans as if she were a model on some game show highlighting a product. Who in the world thought this was a good idea? Of course a boycott of Goya was then proposed by various people, which was unsurprisingly followed by Trump supporters purposefully buying Goya products and posting their shopping carts full of Goya products on social media. Are things like the Goya foods controversy where we should be putting our attention at this time, or have too many people been so sucked into a social media mindset that this is where our energies are now overly focused?
Maybe Trump’s lack of substance will finally catch up with him. He’s always been good at showmanship and using the media to his advantage, despite his protests that the media is unfair to him. In fairness, I do sometimes think the media is unfair to Trump, but Trump has also successfully used the media throughout his life to promote himself. So, yes, I agree with that author that Trump needs to put down his Goya foods, but I have to wonder if Trump has either the will or mental ability to do so.
The boycott of Goya was proposed in response to the words of the CEO. It was completely irrational (as almost cancel culture ops tend to be), and authoritarianism at its most basic. Both Trump & Ivanka were RESPONDING to the outcry for a boycott. Had the screamers on the left not gone nuts about a few words…. it never would have happened.
So, let’s be clear in “why” it became an issue.
Still, it’s probably not the best way to respond.
The media didn’t cover Trump rallies as a means of support or encouragement. They did it because it was a force of nature, and unprecedented in scope. They also did it as a way to visually represent everything they deemed “wrong” with America. Attendees were portrayed as racist, ignorant, white, old, and unenlightened. Let’s not pretend that the media did him any favors in that regard. Their aims in covering his rallies was to use them as a foil against their imagery of civilized, urbane, intelligentsia they ascribed to Hillary’s supporters and events.
If you are going to use my words, please do it in their context.
Mine: “under the hyper-partisan media microscope”
Yours: “under a media microscope”
Your assertion that it’s a standard media microscope is incorrect. This media has been on a witch-hunt since before the inauguration. There is a double standard so obvious that it defines a politicizing and weaponized media.
To be clear, I wrote this piece with the hope that Trump 2020 will succeed. I’m not a Trump supporter, but I like what his policies have done to help victims of human trafficking, criminal justice reforms, and all the other things lifetime politicians can’t seem to accomplish (Biden… for example). I want his campaign refresh to make a slight course adjustment, but stay the course. I also expect that once Biden comes out of his basement hidey-hole, and resumes live unscripted stump speeches… his numbers will decline.
Silence is an asset for most politicians. But Biden will lose that advantage.
Brian Brandt says: If he could just get him to stop and think before he opens his big mouth and says something stupid.
Taylor says: He cannot help himself, he has impulse control issues and is easily provoked. He cannot even bother to proofread his 140 character tweets (covfefe?). If he wins (I do hope he does) it will be in spite of himself.
Taylor says: Narcissi Craig
I too am not a Trump supporter and I could never be a Hannity style cheerleader but the reason I will vote for Trump in spite of his manifest shortcomings is I do like a lot of his domestic and foreign policies. I look at the Democratic Party and I see neo-Stalinism on the rise and the return of the Obama Gang especially if Biden he picks Susan Rice, Kamala Harris, or Long Liz Warren to be his Vice President. Trump needs to stop playing to his base and look to add more undecided voters for November.
Quentin Q. Quill says: Narcissi Craig
Could one of the main reason the mainstream media covered Trump’s rallies and Trump so much was that it was good for ratings? Somehow I bet it was. Didn’t at least one outlet even admit this? I think you read to much into my use of “media microscope” I was just agreeing with you that Trump receives a great deal of attention from the media. I wasn’t agreeing or disagreeing with you about whether it was partisan.That was all I meant. I wasn’t thinking about whether it was a standard media microscope so my apologies if I inadvertently misrepresented your viewpoint by using your words of of context. That was not my intention.
I am fully aware of the lead up to Trump and Ivanka’s photos with Goya products. I figure people are free to announce they are going to boycott products if that’s what they want to do. I wonder if all the Mexican-Americans who took offense at Trump’s campaign announcement speech in which he maligned immigrants from Mexico think a call for a boycott is “irrational.” I remember that not too long ago people were posting videos of themselves burning their Nike products. Do you think that boycott was also “irrational” and “authoritarianism at its most basic?”
Unless Trump has a Road To Damascus moment, which is unlikely given that Trump seems to be on the lower end of the scale when it comes to self-awareness, I am skeptical that he can turn his campaign around. Biden has been benefiting from keeping a low profile. You may be correct that his numbers will decline once he makes himself more accessible, but Trump will probably continue to sabotage himself. There’s still plenty of time left for things to change, however, so it’s possible that Trump can still pull out a win. I have to wonder, however, if Trump has already alienated too many voters who will, as you noted, turn out to vote against him. It could be that Trump’s lifetime of bullying and narcissistic behavior may finally catch up to him.
It probably isn’t the best idea to call Joe Biden “Gropin’ Joe Biden.” Remember Trump’s “grab ’em by the p*ssy” remark? I’d go with another nickname far away from Trump’s p*ssy remark. To call Joe Biden “Gropin’ Joe Biden” will encourage retorts about Trump’s “p*ssy” remark and the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct made against him. Surely Trump’s campaign won’t even consider calling Biden “Gropin’ Joe.”
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