During past campaigns for President and otherwise, former Vice-President Joe Biden has been known for a history of often embarrassing, cringe-worthy gaffes that have left campaign staff with the task of cleaning up after him. These gaffes have ranged from comments about fellow candidates that are relatively harmless to jokes about the ethnic makeup of 7-11 workers in his home state of Delaware that he’s had to apologize for. So far in his third bid for the Presidency, the former Vice-President seems to be avoiding the gaffes:
LOS ANGELES — The mayor of Los Angeles was attempting to praise Joseph R. Biden Jr. to the press, but Mr. Biden’s aides were more focused on shooing the press away.
At the end of a made-for-cameras lunch he shared with Mr. Biden at a taco stand last week, Mayor Eric Garcetti had to raise his voice over a phalanx of Biden staff members, who were attempting to end the question-and-answer session between the former vice president and about 40 reporters and photographers swarming their table.
“I want to say one last thing,” the mayor twice said over the din, before offering his homage: “Los Angeles loves Joe Biden and Joe Biden loves Los Angeles.”
The tape recorders and cameras were soon shut off, and Mr. Biden exited King Taco without having veered off message.
As the famously voluble Mr. Biden makes his first retail campaign stops in the Democratic primary, and grows accustomed to the front-runner status he never enjoyed in his two previous White House bids, his campaign is grappling with how to showcase Mr. Biden’s never-met-a-stranger persona without exposing him to an environment where he may commit a gaffe.
So far, they have struck a safe, if precarious, balance.
Just over two weeks into Mr. Biden’s candidacy, the most notable feature of his campaign may be what hasn’t happened: He has not blurted anything out that delights his rivals, horrifies his aides and reinforces his image as “Uncle Joe,” America’s there-he-goes-again relative who makes you smile and wince in equal measure.
As the famously voluble Mr. Biden makes his first retail campaign stops in the Democratic primary, and grows accustomed to the front-runner status he never enjoyed in his two previous White House bids, his campaign is grappling with how to showcase Mr. Biden’s never-met-a-stranger persona without exposing him to an environment where he may commit a gaffe.
So far, they have struck a safe, if precarious, balance.
Just over two weeks into Mr. Biden’s candidacy, the most notable feature of his campaign may be what hasn’t happened: He has not blurted anything out that delights his rivals, horrifies his aides and reinforces his image as “Uncle Joe,” America’s there-he-goes-again relative who makes you smile and wince in equal measure.
It is early yet — which even Mr. Biden’s friends allow as they hold their breath — and precedent offers good reason to question whether his streak of mostly error-free days can last.
But his staff has sought to mitigate the risk by effectively recreating the trappings of the vice presidency: guarding question-and-answer sessions, selecting safe interview settings and remaining all but glued to his hip when he greets voters on rope lines, dips into ice cream shops and steps out of the black Chevy Suburbans that are indistinguishable from the Secret Service models he once rode in.
There are notes on his lectern to remind him of key policy points, depending on the locale, and his schedule has been carefully planned: He has appeared at nearly as many fund-raisers (five) as he has rallies (six).
As noted, it’s still early in the campaign and Biden has benefited from the fact that his staff has kept a short-leash on him, limiting press access, limiting the amount of time he spends in forums where he might be apt to speak off the cuff, and keeping him something of a protective bubble that, as the article notes, isn’t all that different from what he experienced during his relatively gaffe-free Vice-Presidency. This, no doubt, is one of the reasons that Biden has been soaring in the polls and is currently seen by Democrats as one of the few candidates in the race who is putting forward a credible case that he can defeat President Trump.
The question, of course, is how long this might last. Joe Biden is in his 70s and he’s been in politics for four decades. His history of speaking off the cuff, which is what leads him to the gaffes, is long-standing and it’s hard for someone who has been around as long as he has to change their nature immediately. At some point, there will be open mics or an unscripted question and answer session and that’s when Biden’s message discipline will be put to the test. The same can be said about the debates that will start next month, especially since that’s another forum where the former Vice-President has been known to say things off the cuff that his staff has had to “explain” later. For the time being, though, he appears to be staying n message and that is inuring to his benefit.
