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Peggy Noonan
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Peggy Noonan
Political Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
Peggy Noonan is a political columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of nine books on U.S. politics and culture, most recently The Time of Our Lives: Politics, Passions, and Provocations.
The following interview was conducted by FRONTLINE’s Jim Gilmore on July 29, 2020. It has been edited for clarity and length.
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Biden’s Early Political Career
So talk about Joe Biden.When is the first time that Joe Biden comes on your radar screen, and sort of who is he at that point, and how you would describe him?
Oh, I think Joe Biden, for those observing the American political scene, has been a figure on it for half a century.It’s 2020.I think I first became aware of him in the 1970s, when he was a young senator from Delaware.And there was about him in those early days always a sense that this man had a future.He will be running for president.He was, in those days, a sort of moderate, a sort of commonsensical moderate Democrat.He was a man who, early on, you became aware, had experienced a most extraordinary tragedy with the car accident in which his wife and daughter died and his sons were so badly injured.He was the man on the Amtrak train.
When his sons were in the hospital, Joe Biden was first starting out as a senator.He’d do his work in the Capitol and then take the Amtrak train home in the evenings to be with the boys.Then he’d take the train down in the morning.I saw him once on the Amtrak, not back in those days, only within the past 10 or 15 years, and was—was touched by his regular commuter’s friendliness to everybody on the train, and to the men and women who worked on the train.
But I think, by and large, his—his public persona was of an affable, moderate fellow trying to get legislation through Congress.I think in his generation, there were other, more compelling-seeming senators, like Ted Kennedy.But there was always a sense, with Joe Biden, that he was biding his time.
Institutionalist?
Perhaps a respecter of what is.He worked in a great American institution.You know, I think he did show sympathy for and respect for America’s institutions: the Congress in which he worked; U.S. government in which he hoped to rise; the churches, the Catholic Church that had been part of his family; the press.So I don’t know if I’d call him an institutionalist, but naturally, just by nature, someone who respected institutions and power centers.
Biden’s First Presidential Run
Let’s talk about the 1987 election, his first time that he runs for president.Do you remember, sort of, that?Of course that’s the plagiarism election, with the [Neil] Kinnock plagiarism, or forgetting to note the fact that it was from a Kinnock speech.Talk a little bit about that ’87 election, the first time, young guy, running for president, what he stands for.Is he sort of searching for a voice?
I think when Biden first ran for president in 1987, he had the slight wobble of someone running for president for the first time.Everybody who runs for president thinks they’ve been watching this show for years; they’ll know how to do this.They’ve rehearsed things in their heads that have to do with imagining being asked a question or being on the debate stage.They know they’ll have it nailed.And yet, they show up for the first time, and it’s really hard.It is somehow always harder than you expected.
So I think with Joe Biden in ’87 and in ’88, there was a bit of a wobble.I think the charges of plagiarism, with regard to what Neil Kinnock, the British political figure, had said, and Joe Biden borrowed it and applied it to his own life and made a moving sort of aria, a moving sort of part of a speech about his own life, which in fact had been taken from Neil Kinnock, the scandal of it was two parts.One was sort of banal.Clearly this wasn’t original to Biden.Clearly he had taken it from somebody else.Obviously he would get in trouble.
The more interesting part was that I think there was this sense that he thought it was OK to do that; that he was a little surprised when he got caught and got in trouble.I think we were probably reaching a point, politically as a country, where there were people running for president who had much too great a sense of the theatrics of the—of the event of running for president.And they thought, within the context of the theatrics, anything goes.Well, not anything goes.When you tell stories about your life, they actually have to be true stories about your life, and they can't be true stories about somebody else’s life. …
So the plagiarism thing, just to finish up, so it wasn’t only the plagiarism.He, you know, adjusted his law school résumé a little bit, and he got caught, puffing up his background.I mean, what did that say about him as a candidate back then?
Well, I'm not sure it said more than this: Politicians often play around with the facts of their lives.Sometimes they actually run for high-profile positions like the U.S. Senate and claim to have fought in Vietnam and been decorated, and it turns out that’s not true.I don’t understand the propensity to be a fabulist about your life in politics, for two reasons.One is, it is wrong to not tell the truth about your life.But another is, you're going to get caught.
So what is it that makes you go off on those flights and say those things?I'm not sure.I think perhaps the experience—the experience of being before crowds, of being before an adoring crowd, of being before a dozen or 200 or 2,000 supportive people who are going, “Go, Joe!,” maybe that experience just makes you get a little carried away.Lyndon Johnson used to get carried away in that way.A lot of politicians do.
And Joe was very much a politician.Joe Biden, he’s always radiated this sense that he enjoys politics.He respects the institution of it.He loves the game of it.He loves the dance of it.He loves meeting people.He loves hugging strangers.He loves connecting with a shy child.He loves showing respect for Grandma.There are some people in politics who have a natural talent for that kind of thing, some people who don’t.Joe Biden has always had that, that kind of very touchy—touchy—let’s call it a warmth.He loves mixing with the other folks.
Campaigns, politics is personal to him, it seems.
He likes it.You know, some people are in politics because they’re in love with policy, but they’re not necessarily in love with humans, you know.And so they show up at their campaign events, and they—and they try, in that awkward way, to make a connection or show they’re a regular guy.You know, I’m thinking of Richard Nixon.Nixon, I think, just before the 1968 Republican convention, was on his way to the convention hall, and he—Bill Buckley tells this story—and he decided that he was going to get his shoes shined at the train station.And he’s sitting there in the chair, getting his shoes shined.And he was trying to make a conversation with the young kid, the teenager or whatever, who was shining his shoes.I think Bill Buckley observed it, and said, “That’s what purgatory is going to be like, seeing a guy like Richard Nixon just trying to show a common touch with an American teenager.”So some politicians have it; some do not.Even the phrase the “common touch” is kind of an old one.But it was very around when Joe Biden started out.And he had it.
… The Bork hearings, right at the end, seemed to be essential to him, because he has to boost his reputation.Having to leave the campaign in the way that he did, the Bork hearings seemed to be politically very important for him.And so your sort of overview of the Bork hearings?
Oh, my overview is that it was a politically extremely charged judicial hearing, probably in a way nobody had quite anticipated.Look, that whole hearing gave rise to a new word, a verb, “to bork.”That means to treat roughly and perhaps unjustly a person you are questioning.I think it marked—the Bork hearings did mark a turning point in congressional consideration of Supreme Court justices, and probably not a happy turning point.
Biden and the Clarence Thomas Hearings
… Let’s talk about the Thomas hearings.So in ’91, the Thomas hearings and Anita Hill testimony and such, with Joe again in the limelight as the head of the committee.What did those hearings show about Joe Biden?
I’m not sure he wasn’t doing his best in a way to be fair.In attempting to be fair, I think—and also seeming to be nervous—I mean, these were explosive charges that were unprecedented, that were highly dramatic, highly personal, that, you know—normally, when the Senate is performing its advice and consent function on a nominee to the Supreme Court, America is not tuned in to the TV.But of course, this was an explosive story, and everybody was watching and listening and debating.And do you believe him?Do you believe her?
It would have been, I think, hard for any chairman.I think there were also, you know, side problems.Ted Kennedy was normally a strong member of the committee in his questioning, but because of his own life story, he couldn’t get into this.There were many Republicans who just were very indignant about this whole area of life being opened up, and these—the surprising charge.And there was a sense that one party was trying to fool the other—I mean, more than the usual sense.
I suppose Biden did his best, but in attempting to do his best, he probably didn’t leave Democrats happy, because he had not seemed supportive enough to Anita Hill and those who wanted to testify in her favor.And he left Republicans unhappy also, because the hearings blew up in the way they did and wound up with such crazy questions and areas of inquiry.So I don’t suppose it was a great moment in the national light.I was never under the impression that—that Biden did a terrible job.But maybe it wasn’t what many people had hoped, I suppose.
So he becomes, in some ways, for some people, the symbol—because he is in the limelight; he was the chairman—of a failed system.I mean this is, you know, you know, what a contentious issue.I mean, you’ve got a Black witness and a Black judge.And you’ve got the issue of women’s rights.And it was not an enviable position for Biden, but he kind of comes out of it not looking too good.No?
It’s probably true.I mean, it was an electric moment, and it was one of those overcharged moments in American life where there's way too much electricity in the system.You would listen to Anita Hill’s statement, and you would consider, and you’d think, that sounds pretty true.And you would listen to Clarence Thomas’s speech in his own defense, speaking of how he had experienced everything, both in the past with regard to Anita Hill and in this moment—“a high-tech lynching of an uppity Black man,” I think is what he said.That was electric.
There are times in American political history when the grid fries, when it becomes so overcharged there are too many sparks flying in too many directions.And I think that was one of those moments. …
Biden’s First Senate Run
Something we didn’t mention, but maybe we should, the audacity of him running for Senate the first time, in 1972, when he was 29 years old and not even really old enough to take office for a few months until he turned the age of 30.What did that say about him?And what did he learn from that race?
Oh, my gosh.The fact that he got into politics not only at a very young age, 29 years old, but with nothing in particular behind him, you know.He couldn’t say, “I was the youngest mayor of a major town or city in this state.”There wasn’t much behind him at all.He was a fellow who’d always wanted to go into politics and saw an opening.Now, he had to be imaginative to see that opening.But he also displayed one of the traits of successful politicians, which is to be daring, to ask for something before it’s your turn, to go for it, …
to throw the dice and to say: “Who knows?Take your shot.You never know what’ll happen.Life is exciting.”That is something solid political figures do.And to me, it’s always kind of impressive when they do it.So I always thought that just showed his early decision to get in without much behind him.That just showed, well, he’s got a politician’s nature.
Biden as Vice President
… So back to 2008, the surprising thing is, then, that Obama decides that Joe is the one to be his VP, despite the gaffe at his expense. Why?What was it about Joe that sort of seemed to be the right pick for Obama?What did he bring to the party that would add to his ability to run the country?
Well, I don’t know.I think when Al—when Bill Clinton chose Al Gore as his running mate, he wasn’t thinking about this will provide geographic balance, and he wasn’t thinking this will provide age balance.He thought, let’s double down on our political stance here, which is a certain moderation.So I think it was Clinton who opened up the vice presidential picking process, in a way.
I think with Barack Obama, in 2008, he must have been thinking, in part, I am the young guy in the party.I have shot up like a rocket through talent and charisma and a certain glamour and a certain singularity.However, that would suggest my vice president should be a longtime party stalwart, somebody who you know: dependable Joe, a political moderate.Everybody had perceived Biden as a moderate, while with Obama himself, they weren’t clear exactly on exactly what his political impulses were, in part because he hadn’t been on the national scene for more than two years.…I think—I think I'm correct with two years.
I think Obama was a young man, and relatively untried.And he must have been thinking, Joe is a generation older than I am and has been tried, and has endured.And that’s one of the great talents of Joe Biden, which is enduring, year after year.In a time when—when so much seems unsettled, he’s had a major career, and a very long, enduring career in the U.S. Senate.So to me, the—Obama’s choice of Joe Biden just seemed to make sense.Joe Biden gave him the things that people were not sure Obama himself had: maturity, the ability to endure, a more or less clear political view.
There's another side of Joe, and it came up after they became—they were elected. ...
But there were people within the Obama White House who thought he was a joke, a little bit of a joke, and didn’t trust him, didn’t understand who the guy was.What is it with Joe Biden, this thing where he struggles to be taken seriously sometimes?
Well, Joe Biden is a garrulous man.He is someone who really enjoys talking.You know, some people, especially people in politics, literally physically enjoy talking.They enjoy telling you things and having you look at them.So, he loves talking.If you are someone who is chattery and loquacious and says a lot of words, of course you’re going to have some gaffes along the way.
And he has perhaps had more than his share, I don’t know.On the garrulosity scale.I don’t know if he’s had more than his share.But there's something nice—we all know people who are—who are older and garrulous and say things, and you go, “Whoa, you mean such and such?”And they go, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry.That was a gaffe.”Joe Biden probably says a lot, “Oh, my gosh, that was one of my gaffes.”
I don’t know why he has had to struggle to be taken seriously.I can't say, but I would need more exposure to him.But clearly there is something that Biden has in common with Donald Trump, and that is that they are both very eager to tell you that they are competent, that they are sophisticated, that they have insights into the process, that they know how the machinery works, that they have good first-rate minds.And often with people, I think when you meet someone and they start telling you how bright and accomplished they are, you start to wonder immediately, are they bright, and are they accomplished?So that may be some of it.I don’t know. It may be a certain insecurity within him.I don’t know. …
Biden’s Decision Not to Run in 2016
He is thinking about running, of course, in 2016.He doesn’t.His son also, Beau Biden, dies of brain cancer in 2015, May of 2015.It has an effect on him.But also, the president, Obama, when Biden writes about it, is clear that Obama’s choice was Clinton, that feeling that it was Clinton’s time, not Joe’s time.Any thoughts about that choice and the fact that he didn’t run in 2016?And a lot of people will say he rues that decision because of the fact of Trump winning.Any thoughts about that decision or what it might have meant to not be the pick of Obama?
Well, I think if the story is true that Barack Obama, the president, told Joe Biden, “It’s not your time.This isn't right.This isn't your year.It’s Hillary’s year.Don’t do it,” I think that simply may have been a mistake on Obama’s part to have judged 2016 in that way.I think if Joe Biden had run and had managed to get the nomination, he could have given Donald Trump a real run for his money.I mean, I can totally imagine how he could have beaten Trump, because he would not have been carrying the specific kind of baggage that Mrs. Clinton was carrying.
And so I don’t know.It probably is frustrating, to say the least, when the president you have served for eight years, and with whom you’ve developed a friendship, tells you, “No, Joe, it’s not you.”I have always wondered if Biden thought, well, you know, Barack Obama, I like you a lot, but this is not your decision to make.I'm going to throw my hat in the ring.Let’s see how it goes.It’s interesting to me that he did not have that rebellion or that pushback.But I think he might have done well in—in 2016.And I do think Obama misjudged it.There was probably a place for Joe Biden in that race.
The 2020 Campaign
So let’s talk about 2020, and what's going on now.Joe decides that this is his moment, finally.Why now, do you think?
I don’t know.I can't tell you.I think when people get in the habit of running for president, and in the habit of wanting the presidency, and in the habit, when they reflect on their lives, of thinking they could win and they could be a good president, that’s a hard habit to break.Dreams die hard.So I think this was—2020 seemed like an opening.He must have been considering his age.He must have been considering a lot of things.But this time, without anybody to tell him not to, he did throw his hat in the ring.And it worked out very well.
But I don’t know why.I mean, what are you saying, when you say that question?Do you mean—do you mean shouldn’t he have thought he was too old?
Well, I mean, that is another question, is that some people will say, you know, 77 is too old.Some people, the president included, says he’s lost his fastball. ...I mean, this is—it’s a hard thing to deal with.But what is the reality?I mean, how do you see him as a candidate now?Is he too old?Has he missed his moment?
… Certainly, President Trump, who is also up there in years—I can't remember how old he is, 74, 75—he will—he’s made it quite clear he’ll be critiquing Biden on his age.
I think perhaps part of the age issue with candidate Biden is it’s a two-part issue.One is, is he too old?Is he neurologically aging, perhaps aging quicker than others who are 80 or 85?So that’s one part that I think people do wonder about.… The second part is, if he is too old, meaning neurologically he’s just slowing down a little bit, well, that means you can still vote for him.But if you vote for him, what are you getting, exactly?Who are you getting around him, to help him be president?What stands are you getting from Joe Biden?What are his political desires right now? …
My sense of 2020, in part, is that we've got a big nation rocked by this terrible pandemic, rocked by an economic contraction that could become a long-running recession.We are rocked by racial turmoil and protest in the streets.So that’s a lot of being rocked for one nation, for a great nation, in the modern era.
It seems to me that people, so many people, certainly in the center and middle of the ideological spectrum, would be so hopeful for something like stability, just stability, just keep this thing up and going.I think they look at Donald Trump, and they see not a calmer of chaos, but a bringer of chaos.And they look at Joe Biden, and they think, well, that’s old moderate Joe.That sounds pretty good.But then they think about his political stances and utterances of the past six months, and he seems to be saying—I think he literally said something like, “Well, I'm for fundamentally transforming the system, and I'm for this and this.”And he’s for a series of left-wing initiatives, if you will, that don’t sound like stability, that don’t sound like girding up what we have and making it stronger, but sound like going down a whole new path.
It seems, to me, that Biden, in attempting to talk to, placate and identify with the rising progressives of his party, he has undone a little bit, or to some degree, his old reputation as a natural, instinctive moderate and centrist.And I'm not sure how that will play out in November.I'm not sure it will matter, but I’m not sure it won’t.
… You wrote one piece back before he got into the race, the primaries, where you were suggesting he shouldn’t run.You said he was normal a guy, that your quote was, “You’re sweet; you’re half-daffy; you’re mad.”Explain that.
That was quoting AOC.She had literally said—she was asked in some Q&A about Biden, and she more or less went, “Meh.”
Explain that sort of feeling, though, about Joe.
There was a sense with Joe Biden, when he started out in 2020, that he was out of step with his party.His party was in the middle of transition, every bit as much as the Republican Party has been for the past five, six, seven years.Both parties had been shattering a bit.The rising energy on the Democratic side, the energy, the youthfulness, the people who have time and desire to devote their lives to politics, they are all on the progressive left, and they are very much of the moment.
Joe Biden seemed like, in a way, a throwback to an older, more stable, perhaps more predictable American political system.And my sense of it was, boy, a lot of those to your left are going to do just great.I’m not sure you’re going to do great.I’m not sure you belong in that party anymore.And there’s nothing wrong with deciding: “You know what?I have had a great career.I’ve been in the U.S. Senate for decades.I’ve been vice president of the United States.I’ve been around. I’ve done my work.I’ve experienced the political life of my nation and I think done a pretty good job.”Nothing wrong with just, you know, leaving the party at that point—I mean, not the Democratic Party, but, you know, just sort of pull on your hat, walk out of the party, give an Irish goodbye.You don’t have to make a big deal of it, just quietly depart.
So that is what I thought he should do.And in the early days of the primary, and after he announced, boy, it just looked like that was going to go nowhere.And then, you know, after a while, it looked like nobody else was going anywhere, either.And then Jim Clyburn saved it all in the South Carolina primary.And that was really quite something.And you could see that Joe Biden had some ancestral tug, some old ancestral loyalty towards him, from people who care about politics—Democrats who’d been watching politics and taking part in it for a long time, and who just sort of felt: “Joe, I know you.I like you.I know where your heart is.I’m going to go with you.”And they put him over the top.
I think that was one of the most moving moments in the 2020 cycle, Jim Clyburn putting him over the top, telling people how they should understand Joe, and managing to do it, managing to pull it off, I think to everybody’s surprise, perhaps to Biden’s also.
… But Biden, at this moment of crisis, he’s known as a conciliator.That’s what he made his fame on in Congress as being.
But this is a different Congress.This is a different America.There’s a much more partisan feel to Washington.It’s much more difficult to get things done.Can he still do the deals?I mean, is he up to the task at this point?
We don’t know.I think one of the great questions, one of the determining questions of this race will be simply, is he up to the job?And can he, at this really delicate time, where we’ve had a confluence of crises, can he see his way through?Can he see his way through in a pathway to higher land, and can he lead people there?And will he have around him people who can help him do that?
I just think it is my sense—you know the president’s poll numbers.I think he’s up there with about 37% approval or something like that.It’s not good numbers for him.He’s been an incumbent.So when you’ve been president for four years, the American people are going to essentially vote on whether or not they want that to continue.Do they like what they’ve seen?The president’s poll numbers suggest no, the majority of people do not like what they have seen.Too much chaos, too much immaturity, nothing is organized.The sense that the White House is pulling it out of its ear each day.Too many dramas from the president.Too much crazy talk.Too much bad judgment.The understaffed government—I'm not sure people are really sensitive to that or fully aware of it, but our government is actually just not working.So you’ve got that.
Then add the crises of the past few months only.And then you think, I want Joe Biden.Do you know what I mean? You think, ack, I don’t like that.Do I want this fellow here?And Joe Biden, before Nov. 3, 2020, is just going to have to convince the American people: “I can do this.I will be better than that other guy.I can help return to something like normality.I can revivify and make stronger the American institutions that make—that mean so much to us.I can do this thing.Give me the reins.”
It will all depend on whether or not he can make that case and convince people and leave them saying, “You know, I’m not sure, but he’s a good guy, and I think he’s got it, and I think he can make this work.And he’s better than what we've had for the past four years.”It seems to me, it’s going to come down like that. …
Biden and Trump in Times of Crisis
Three last things.Joe Biden, in dealing with a crisis, can he lead us through the crises that we have?
It’s very—look, so much—the biggest cliché when one speaks of the presidency is that personnel is policy.But it’s true.If you pick really good people—for instance, in Joe Biden’s case, if you pick, as the people who run your government, your administration, people who have had experience, sober people, people who are accomplished and sophisticated, people who know how to manage, to manage great departments, and—and—and great agencies, if he does that, sure, sure.That will be very promising for him.
We have a very ad hoc, understaffed government now, with people not given full agency to run their agencies or not capable of running their agencies.So I think the American people would be very grateful to see a government that was simply up and operating in a reasonable way again.So if Joe Biden—I mean, one thing he ought to have access to is the past three generations of Democratic managers and leaders.So you might expect that would be helpful. …
And Trump… How do you rate Trump when you look at him as a president in dealing with crises?
Oh, well, I think this is—one of the things this election is is the coronavirus election.I think there is a—a growing and settled-in sense among the president’s foes, but also among many of his supporters, that managerially, he has not been equal to the challenge.The administration, from the beginning, they were slow to see what was happening.Once they saw what was happening, they were slow to make the decisions that might be helpful on everything, from things you need, like PPE, straight—straight to more—almost more importantly, speaking in a very straight way with the American people about what is happening and what potentially could happen, what we must prepare for and how we can prepare for it.
So I think everybody understands that the president kind of looked at the whole mess and thought—and sort of minimized it in his mind.His first thought was not, oh, my God, tens of millions of people could become sick.His first thought was, oh, my God, this could harm the stock market.And the stock market, of course, and the economy were his great calling cards for reelection.So I think he saw it in a—in a selfish and self-referential way, instead of in a national, “This is a problem, we’ve got to deal with it” way.
So I think on that crisis, he has suffered.I think Donald Trump always sort of sold himself as the man who could—he’s a businessman.He can do the art of the deal.He knows how to manage an institution.Well, it didn’t seem like any of that worked for him this time.And I think a virus was a wily opponent that he couldn’t talk at and make it go away. …
At the same time, the virus took away the high economy that the president had been so relying on for reelection.At the same time, it simply scared people to have a sense that there’s nobody really in charge here who I can completely trust.
So I think all of that was dreadful for Trump, and can—and will have a real impact on Nov. 3.At the same time, I think for Joe Biden there is this unaddressed issue that some way—somewhere along the way he will have to address, either right straight on or obliquely, and it is this sense that, you know, they’re fighting in America’s streets.There is a great deal of unrest.There is some violence.It may continue.It may grow.
A lot of people will look at Joe Biden and his campaign before the election, if this unrest continues, and think, look, can you guys—that’s the left, the progressive left in the streets.Can they not control themselves?Or can you control them?Joe Biden, what is your place in that drama?What should you be telling those people in the streets?What should you be telling people who are throwing garbage cans against the glass doors of—of—of federal buildings?
Joe Biden, seize them.Just go in and tell us, what are you going to do about that?If they are folks who are from the left of your party, well, how are you going to talk to them?How are you going to handle this?What are you going to do to calm this down?What are you going to do to say, “Hey, violence is wrong”?I feel like Joe Biden could be hurt between now and November by the fighting in the streets, and that he had better see it as a real challenge, but also an opportunity to differentiate himself from that—that part of the ideological spectrum, and—and maybe make quite an impression in saying, “No, that is not the way we do this, and it’s not the way we’re going to do it.”
I also think that, you know, the—there is a general sense, when you’re a centrist or a moderate, you’re looking at the Democratic Party in 2020, and you're seeing a lot of kind of cultural radicalism.And we’ve all talked about this in many ways, from some specific policies through things like what used to be called political correctness, cancel culture, all of that kind of almost intellectual unrest.I don’t think those things are good.But that doesn’t matter.I think a lot of centrists don’t like that.
It’s not coming from the right; it’s coming from the left.Where is Joe Biden on those things?Can Joe Biden get swamped by a general sense of, man, I’m not sure that guy is strong enough to stand up and tell people on his side of the spectrum, “No, that’s not the way we’re going”?I’m just not sure we’re going to see that.And I have a feeling, for his good, for the good of the country, we ought to see it.I will be watching for it.
The Choice Between Biden and Trump
The other thing, the last thing we always ask people, because this is The Choice 2020, what is the choice between Biden and Trump?
… It’s a choice between four years that you didn’t like and an unknown that you may not like.It’s a choice between one older fellow and another older fellow.If Joe Biden is fortunate, it will turn into a choice between something wild and eccentric and strange and something that speaks of an old normality, and an old American ability to make your way through the world.
I do think that—that the incumbent has turned off a sufficient number of Americans that he cannot assume he will be reelected.But the challenger has not brought in perhaps enough Americans who are certain that he can do the job.And so the numbers seem to suggest, when you look at the polling now, the numbers seem to suggest a landslide for Joe Biden.I’m not sure.It’s hard to tell how this is going to go.But I know a majority of the American people do not like the incumbent and want a new house to visit.And Joe Biden has to show this is a good, solid house, and I’ve got an open front door, and I want you to come in.But the foundations are good.The roof works.This is something solid.If he makes it seem like something solid, I think people will go there.
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Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; Park Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. Web Site Copyright ©1995-2025 WGBH Educational Foundation. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
