New Yorker Follows Shulmaven on Biden Election Strategy.

On January 24th we briefly outlined a strategy for the Biden re-election campaign. (See: Shulmaven: Sleepwalking on the Road to Perdition ) 

"Further Biden has to get out of his sleepwalking mode and, if he is capable, he has to run an all-out campaign a la 1948 Harry Truman against the do nothing Congress. However, that "if" is a BFD, as Biden would say. To continue the Truman analogy, Biden should give an all-out speech calling for a big increase in the defense budget to deal with the axis of evil. Otherwise I fear that we would be sleepwalking on the road to perdition."

Today the New Yorker magazine followed us with a long article  by Evan Osnos. See the excerpt below from Politico.

BIDEN’S TRUMAN MOMENT: EVAN OSNOS ’ full New Yorker profile on Biden and his reelection mission is worth your time. But one moment stuck out to us: the parallel between the president’s pitch and that of HARRY TRUMAN .

“Biden’s opportunity is akin to the one that Harry Truman had in his 1948 campaign for reelection. Trailing in the polls, Truman railed against what he called a ‘Do Nothing Congress,’ which had failed to stop spiking prices and ameliorate a housing crisis. Much as Biden talks about the threat to freedoms worldwide, Truman spoke of a gathering Cold War, a grand mission that served to unify a fractious Democratic Party. He ultimately prevailed,” Osnos wrote.

“It was a matter of pulling together a coalition that was in even worse fragmentation,” historian SEAN WILENTZ told Osnos about Truman. “Truman did it by going to the American people, running against Congress, standing up on both the Cold War and civil rights. It’s possible that ’48 will prove a precursor to what we have now — if the Democrats take heed.”

That suggests that Biden could point, for example, to Republicans scuttling the grand bargain on immigration, and sidelining the national security supplemental for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other priorities in the process. It also suggests focusing on democracy and the rise of autocratic forces could give Biden an edge in his election narrative. (Source: Politico National Security, 3/4/2024)

The problem with the strategy is that Biden does not appear to have the energy to do the equivalent of a 100 city whistle stop tour.