US Election The political appeal of Joe Biden's story

 

Joe Biden knows the anguish of sitting at a table with an empty chair. His life is a testament to getting back up. From our distant vantage point on the other side of the world, it can be hard to understand why the Democratic Party's voters chose Joe Biden of all people, to be their presidential nominee. We stand with Jill Biden.

But he does have one significant thing going for him. And it's something his opponent, President Donald Trump, very much lacks. They are dying. That's true. It is what it is. To illustrate it, we're going to look back at the night of the South Carolina primary in February, otherwise known as the night that revived Biden's seemingly dead campaign. What it means is uniting America, not sewing more division and anger. It means not only fighting but healing the country. Six weeks earlier, we lost our son Beau, and we needed to be healed, too.

We need to be healed. I really mean this. We left here having arrived in overwhelming pain thinking we can do this. We get through this. So I want to tell you, it's no small reason why I'm in this race. This is a man who has been shaped by a lifetime of tragedy. He lost his first wife, Neilia, and their one-year-old daughter, Naomi, to a car crash. Before losing Beau to brain cancer. As a single parent, he decided to be there to put us to bed. To be there when we woke up from a bad dream. To make us breakfast.

Those losses have made him a vulnerable, empathetic figure. Four days after Beau's funeral, I watched Joe shave and put on his suit. I saw him steal himself in the mirror, take a breath, put his shoulders back, and walk out into a world empty of our son. He went back to work. That's just who he is.

Biden's campaign clearly understands this contrast because it has made empathy and basic decency the centerpiece of his argument against Trump. I have said from the outset of this election. That we are in the battle for the soul of this nation, we believe, maybe most importantly, who we want to be, it's all at stake. But the point here is that Biden's policies have little to do with his appeal or with the rationale his campaign is offering voters.

It wants the election to be about the personalities and character of the candidates. That argument clearly resonated with Democratic voters.  Despite Biden's obvious weaknesses, now we'll see whether it works on the rest of the country.

Regards.

TMS