Joe-mentum: Atlantic contributor urges Joe Biden to 'stay alive' if only as a 'corporeal presence'

Joe Biden’s off the campaign trail and doing shadow coronavirus addresses from his makeshift living room studio. We can’t blame the 77-year-old for not shaking hands, sniffing babies, and poking people in the chest if they ask tough questions, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm since Biden secured his front-runner status on Super Tuesdays 1 and 2.

Atlantic contributing writer Alex Wagner has a piece out Tuesday called, “Stay Alive, Joe Biden: Democrats need little from the front-runner beyond his corporeal presence.” That’s not saying a lot, but we take it the idea is that Biden, more than anything, is not President Trump, and all he needs to do is not be Trump in order to win in November.

"Biden was never really convincing anyone on the stump—his political power at this point is an idea, held collectively, about how to defeat Trump," writes @alexwagner: https://t.co/kgmykVpxvg

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) March 24, 2020

Wagner writes:

Two days before the South Carolina primary that would reverse his political fortunes and redirect the course of the Democratic nomination, Joe Biden’s campaign for president announced a hastily planned event in McClellanville, South Carolina. The national campaign press was alerted that Biden would enter full battle mode at this stop, that the proverbial gloves were about to come off ahead of the kill-or-be-killed primary on Saturday, and no one would want to miss this one.

And yet, when the cameras and reporters arrived, all they found were a few folding chairs in an otherwise empty parking lot, in front of a community health center. Biden walked out to a podium, mumbled a few words about the improvements he wanted to make to Obamacare, and then shuffled off, alone. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and absolutely nothing had changed. The most notable thing about the event was how unremarkable it was.

…

Voters seem to have coalesced around Biden for his past — who they have known him to be for the past four decades in American politics — rather than for anything in his present. It’s as if Biden exists primarily as an idea, rather than an actual candidate.

Biden is what happens when you put preserving the party before actual issue based campaigning. There is nothing about this man that is endearing, but he was the safe choice. The DNC is going to make us pay the price, yet again, for picking a centrist to counterbalance the GOP.

— Guillotine Vogue ? (@SocialistWitch) March 24, 2020

His only constituency is that which has transferred from the candidates that dropped out. He knows he isn't fit to be President and frankly, I think he is terrified at the notion of winning. He and his handlers know that the less visible he is and the less he speaks publicly, 1/x

— Guy Richie (@luxhomeguy) March 24, 2020

the better his chances. Part of the reason Bernie is still in is to share his ideology and continue growing a progressive movement. But the other part is that he knows Joe could completely blow things up for himself by saying/doing something ridiculous in front of the cameras.

— Guy Richie (@luxhomeguy) March 24, 2020

Our only hope is that the debates between Biden and Trump aren’t postponed or canceled; Biden has enough trouble reading a teleprompter in his living room.

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