Wednesday was, in many ways, a dream day for Joe Biden even if there was a dark cloud on the horizon. A week in which Donald Trump endured the humiliation of sitting in silence in a courtroom listening to Stormy Daniels go into excruciating details about their long-ago tryst, the president travelled to Wisconsin to deliver an unadulterated good news story.
At the same time, the ghastly details of a health issue for the maverick independent candidate Robert Kennedy jnr, who revealed he had once been treated for a parasitic worm which had eaten part of his brain, became public news. In the sunshine of Wisconsin, as he alighted Airforce One, Biden looked more presidential than ever and on the podium in Racine he would announce the investment, by Microsoft, of more than $3 billion to build a new data centre.
This was Biden in his element, extolling the virtues of American possibility as he took the crowd in Racine through a condensed history of their town, which in the 1960s had enjoyed pre-eminence as a cradle of American industry in the Dairy State, only to see it all disappear in the vortex of trickle-down economics, the transfer of domestic jobs to foreign labour centres and slashed public investment leading to what he described as a “hollowed-out middle class”.
He referenced his own high school days at Archmere Academy in Delaware, founded by the Norbertine priests from Wisconsin. The theology teacher there- “a guy named Reilly” – had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers but chose the collar rather than the football helmet for a life. But the school was filled with Packers fans because every Monday after Green Bay had won a game, they got the last period of the day free. “Now, we Catholics call that indirect bribery... but it worked.”
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It was suddenly easy to forget the public image crises of the first months of the year, when his every appearance and utterance was scrutinised for evidence of age-related frailty
Biden sounded enthused and fired by a belief in what he said. It was suddenly easy to forget the public image crises of the first months of the year, when his every appearance and utterance was scrutinised for evidence of age-related frailty. Here, he was harking back to what Americans of a certain generation perceive to be the dream time.
Biden graduated from high school in 1961, so was there to bear witness to the demise of the heartland he lamented in Racine. But his message was one of bright contrast: whereas Donald Trump has, as president, arrived in Racine to promise 13,000 jobs and brandishing a golden shovel to break earth for an enterprise that never materialised, he was here to make good on a promise of 2,300 construction jobs and a further 2,000 jobs to run the data centre. It was the latest triumph of what has been the flagship of his administration: some 15 million jobs created, unemployment at all-time low, inflation down from the spiralling 9 per cent figure in 2022.
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And all of this at a moment when his arch-rival is about to enter the critical phase of a court case which has already dragged several skeletons from the cupboard, with more to come in the shape of his lawyer-turned-enemy Michael Cohen.
But it is only May. And if Donald Trump skips free after the Manhattan trial, he will be unimpeded from resuming his campaign with vigour and with the new message that despite the concerted efforts to hamper him with a trial he has repeatedly described as rigged, they failed.
There are plenty of Americans with jobs who, understandably, care less about the macroeconomic story than they do the decline in personal circumstances when they review the cost of living now as opposed to 2018 or 2019
After Wednesday’s announcement, Biden gave what has become a rare spectacle: a one-on-one televised interview. The brevity of Biden’s speeches – he spoke for less than 20 minutes in Racine – has been noted and the understanding is that his campaign will seek to keep his message sharp and brief as the election trail becomes more intense. But even after the triumphant news he delivered in Racine, he had to bat against the poll returns that insist voters trust Donald Trump more when it comes to the economy. That the cost of purchasing a home has doubled since before the pandemic. That actual income is down when set against the stubbornly high inflation. That the cost of groceries has risen 30 per cent under his watch.
The worry for Joe Biden is that as loudly as his announcement was cheered in Racine, his good news will not be heard throughout the country. There are plenty of Americans with jobs who, understandably, care less about the macroeconomic story than they do the decline in personal circumstances when they review the cost of living now as opposed to 2018 or 2019. They don’t care so much about the reasons why things cost more than they used to: just that they do. And the latest polls show either a dead heat between two candidates, who are summoning little passion or inspiration among the electorate, or the more worrying hints that Donald Trump is, despite the lurid tales drifting out of a Manhattan courtroom, narrowly ahead in the six states upon which this election will probably hinge.
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So, the sunny day in Wisconsin was a brief respite from the larger truth.
Slowly, surely, Joe Biden is gearing up for the battle of what has been an epic political life.