Jill Biden is not an MD. She has a doctorate in education.
My bad. I thought I remembered seeing she was an MD, but I misremembered.
That has yet to be seen. Maybe it's just familiarity but at this point I find Biden's gaffs more startling than Trump's. Biden tends to trail off and act confused, gets angry, Trump just barrels on with confidence, even if misplaced.
Joe Biden has self awareness, Trump doesn't.
I wrote here a few months back that I watched a Trump speech first listening to the words and then just listening to the "vibe" and ignoring the words. If you listen to the words, he speaks utter gibberish that makes no sense. He sometimes contradicts himself in the same sentence.
However if you just listen to his way of speaking without listening to the words, he comes across as supremely confident in whatever he's saying. People who think about what they are saying often have pauses to think when talking off the cuff. Elon Musk is very bad at this. Barack Obama does it too. It can be painful to watch sometimes, but it means what they are saying actually has substance.
There are also people who have the gift of gab and substance too. Bill Clinton can sometimes speak very eloquently off the cuff, though he's hit and miss with it. When he was president and his staffers saw him start to ignore the teleprompter they started sweating because what he was about to say was either going to be brilliant or foot in mouth time. Elizabeth Warren's interview with Rachel Maddow was quite eloquent too, but her head is full of all the talking points and stump speeches from her campaign.
Trump never pauses when he talks. When he gaffs, he just plows ahead making up things as he goes along. Back when Trump first ran for office, Bloomberg and Trump had worked together on some NYC matters and Bloomberg characterized Trump in an interview. He said you could sit with Trump and he would be very entertaining, but you'd walk away knowing everything he just said was BS.
Biden trips himself up because he realizes he just gaffed again and he starts thinking about what he just said wrong rather than what he's going to say next and things spiral down from there.
I can't say I'm thrilled with Biden being the nominee. I don't think many people are. But he's a known quantity and he's not scary. Most of the American public is living on edge waiting to see what Trump's next disaster is going to be. People are exhausted from the anxiety.
On Super Tuesday CNN was asking in their exit poll if people were looking for a candidate who could beat Trump or looking for someone who shared their values. About 2/3 said they were looking for someone who they thought could beat Trump and they voted for Biden. Bernie polls well among western Democrats and the Northeast, but he doesn't have much traction outside of those regions. The Democrats need some combination of other states to win the presidency and most of the west are red states that are not going to go for a Democrat in the general election.
Most Democratic primary voters have been asking the existential question of who has the best chance of beating Donald Trump. Some feel it's Bernie, but most people feel it's Biden. Especially outside the deep blue states.
The die is pretty close to being cast and we have to make the best with what we've got. It would be great if the Democratic bench had someone with the talent of Bill Clinton or Barack Obama who could step up, but they aren't eligible.
For any Democrat nominee, there are advantages over 2016:
1) There are many sources giving flank support like Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, the Lincoln Project, and others.
2) Trump is now a known quantity. He has a track record which he didn't have in 2016.
3) The Democratic nominee is guaranteed to be more likeable than Hillary Clinton.
4) All the dirty tricks that helped Trump in 2016 are now known and by being known are less effective.
5) The key states Trump won in 2016 by tiny margins are now all controlled by Democratic governors that will be shutting down GOP efforts to suppress Democratic votes.
6) A lot of would be Democratic voters who voted third party or not at all in 2016 are motivated to vote this time and guilt is spurring them on.
7) The electorate is 4% less white than it was in 2012.
8) It looks like the economy is going to go into recession on Trump's watch.
9) Trump is epicly botching the COVID-19 situation.
There are still some disadvantages:
1) The Russians as well as other countries will be doing everything they can to interfere and this administration is trying everything it can to squash countermeasures.
2) The Republicans still have a propaganda network and a very effective team of dirty tricksters and slime throwers.
3) Trump has all the powers of incumbency.
4) There may be more dirty tricks played we haven't seen yet.
Ultimately the Democrats need to take the presidency and the Senate or nothing is going to get fixed and we'll have four years of bickering. If a vacancy opens up on the Supreme Court Jan 21, 2021, McConnell will figure out how to keep the seat open until 2025 unless he's out of power.
IMO Biden will have better coattails than Bernie.
