Mike Norris, Co-Editor, The American Dossier
When former Vice President Joe Biden announced that he was running for President, again, it was expected that he would go off script. After five decades in public office, Biden has misspoken so many times, it is part of who he is.
Unlike many politicians, Biden learned to own his mistakes. His ability to accept fault has enabled “Uncle Joe” to survive blunders that would end most politicians’ careers.
“Joe Biden has spoken his mind his entire life, which voters know and love about him,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s communications director and deputy campaign manager. “He’s a real person, he’s authentic and that will never change,” she stated.
Likeability and electability are central points of Biden’s stump speech and, thus far, it seems to be working. In a crowded field of experienced Democratic candidates, Joe Biden is the clear front runner.
A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll has Biden up 7 points over President Trump, 42% to 35%. Other than Bernie Sanders, every other Democrat is either tied with the President or trails him.
Despite his early lead, a series of recent gaffes have some Democrats concerned that, at 76, Biden may not be able to maintain his position for another 439 days.
In May, Biden confused former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who left office in 1990, with Prime Minister Theresa May.
At the Democratic debates in Detroit, Biden accidentally told supporters to “go to Joe 30330” when he meant to tell them to “text JOE to 30330″ to donate.
In Parkland, Florida, Biden told reporters: "I watched what happened and those kids in Parkland came up to see me when I was vice president.” When it was pointed out that the shooting had not occurred while the Vice President was in office, his campaign said that he misspoke and was referring to a meeting he had after the Sandy Hook shooting.
After the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings, Biden expressed sympathy for the “tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before.”
In Des Moines, Iowa, at a town hall with the Asian and Latino Coalition Biden told voters that “poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.”
Most recently, Biden told voters at a campaign rally: "Just like in my generation when I got out of school...when Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King had been assassinated in the '70s and they'd said well I got engaged you know up to that time remember that." Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy were murdered in 1968, approximately two months apart.
The former Vice President’s supporters insist that it’s just in his nature to misspeak.
According to Reverend Joseph Darby, a longtime Biden supporter from South Carolina, “Joe’s always been gaffe-prone.”
“It’s just a piece of who he is,” Darby said. “He made a bunch of them last week but I don’t think it affects his capacity to govern…He is as sharp as he’s been.”
Former Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa believes the verbal missteps will broaden Biden’s appeal with voters. “Voters can identify with a guy who occasionally makes a mistake because they know where his heart is,” said Vilsack.
Biden’s campaign is quick to dismiss questions about the “so-called gaffes,” referring to them as a “press narrative, not a voter narrative.” Senior campaign adviser Symone Sanders stated, “If you were to look at the coverage in Iowa this weekend and juxtapose the local newspapers and local television coverage to national media coverage, you would have thought these reporters were at two different events.”
“If you put a camera in somebody’s face and a microphone on them, you follow them around 100 days, any one of us, I’m pretty sure we would be caught with a slip of the tongue. We would be caught making a mistake,” Sanders said. “The difference is Vice President Biden every single time has immediately corrected himself. … Our campaign’s point is this isn’t registering with the American people.”
Despite Biden’s commanding lead, a number of Democrats have reservations about the septuagenarian heading the Democratic ticket in 2020. These doubters point to Biden’s pattern of verbal errors as proof that he is not up to the task.
There is concern that, even if he does succeed in becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Biden’s mistakes will cost him the general election.
Biden’s inability to speak off script without seriously misspeaking is a reminder of how badly his previous two presidential campaigns flopped. But these are different times.
In 2016, pundits proclaimed the death of the Trump campaign after each controversial statement then-candidate Trump made. What most failed to recognize, was that the more Trump spoke in an unpresidential manner, the more his supporters liked it.
Can Biden expect the same support from Democrats? We will know the answer in 439 days.
After serving as an Airborne Infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division, Mike attended Florida State University, where he received his Bachelors Degree in Political Science and George Washington University, where he received his Masters in Political Management. He is currently pursuing his Juris Doctorate at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Since 2004, Mike has worked in the Florida Senate, where he was one of only two Chief’s of Staff under 30 and in the Michigan Senate, where he served as the Legislative Aide to the Assistant Minority Floor Leader. The 2018 election cycle was Mike’s eighth as a Political Consultant. Mike previously served as the Secretary and Vice President of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, Regional Vice Chair for the Florida Federated Young Republicans and attended the 2012 Republican National Convention as an Alternate Delegate.
He currently lives in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, with his rescue Pit Bull, Ike.
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