Keller @ Large: Buckle up for ugliest, nastiest presidential race ever
BOSTON - Four years ago at this time, even the most jaded political observers were stunned.
Joe Biden, shredded so badly in Iowa and New Hampshire that he skipped out on his own Granite State primary-night time, had been resuscitated by Black voters in Nevada and South Carolina, who saw him as the candidate best-suited to evict Donald Trump. With a Super Tuesday slate heavily populated by southern states ahead and the looming prospect of Bernie Sanders emerging as the nominee, Democrats closed ranks behind Biden. Any lingering doubts were largely erased by Trump's negligent handling of the pandemic.
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No one alive had ever seen anything quite like it. And as the déjà vu general election of 2024 begins, you'd better get ready for another season of unprecedented politics.
Every time you think our political discourse can't go any lower, it does. Can there be any doubt that we are now in for the ugliest, nastiest, dirtiest presidential race ever?
Biden starts out with a huge financial advantage. He'll need to spend every penny to remind memory-challenged voters of the many disgraceful Trump moments that disgusted them back then, and to perk up his own lagging approval ratings. That won't be easy unless inflation continues to ease, and the border situation comes under control. Those are the Republicans' aces in the hole, and they won't be shy about flogging them.
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But Biden has a couple of cards of his own to play. The right's abortion-right assault has been a political debacle for the Republicans, and there's no reason to think it won't continue to be. The disasters in Ukraine and Gaza are problematic on multiple levels, but they also reflect an unstable, dangerous world that requires stable presidential leadership, advantage Biden.
And then there's Biden's Trump card. After a string of exceptionally impolitic ad-libs and senior moments that make Biden seem lucid, there's talk about Trump advisers wanting to limit his unscripted mic time. Good luck with that.
The Democrats will do everything they can think of to goad Trump into more of the same. His approval ratings are just as poor as Biden's, and while MAGA may be in denial, everyone else saw for themselves what happened on January 6, 2021.
And the Republicans will do everything they can think of to dirty up Biden and stoke terror over what a second term might bring. Or maybe just keep doing what they've been doing; judging from Biden's poll numbers, it seems to be working pretty well.
The next eight months will require strong stomachs and discerning minds. It will be a pitched battle over roughly 20% of the electorate that has most likely been hiding under the bed during the primary season.
Wasn't the 2020 election supposed to be the most important of our lifetime? Scratch that. And buckle your seat belts.