Two campaign advisers to former President Barack Obama urged Joe Biden to overhaul his campaign tactics if he wants to defeat President Trump in November.
Biden has been appearing on television and virtual campaign events via a studio in his basement in Delaware during the coronavirus outbreak.
David Axelrod, Obama’s senior strategist, and David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, said Biden needs to adjust to the new realities of virtual campaigning by doing more than giving online speeches and interviews from his basement.
“Online speeches from his basement won’t cut it. … While television remains a potent force, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are all essential in a Covid-19 world in which candidate travel and voter contact will be severely limited. In many respects, they are the campaign, not an important part of it,” they wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times.
Axelrod and Plouffe advised Biden to go on offense instead of playing defense, as well as employ a more robust rapid response team.
“Every day, Mr. Trump provides opportunities. It isn’t hard to get a rise out of this thin-skinned president and knock him off his game. Be a speedboat, not a battleship. Make him react to you,” they wrote. “Mr. Biden can turn the tables on Mr. Trump. To do this, the challenger needs to behave more like an insurgent, building the capacity to wield facts, humor and mockery at lightning speed in those surreal moments of opportunity that Mr. Trump regularly provides.”
The two Obama advisers also recommended using the former president, Hillary Clinton, and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to expand the reach of his message on their social media accounts. But, Axelrod and Plouffe said, the content Biden’s surrogates share has to be of the highest quality.
“So activate a virtual content production studio and establish a unique content calendar for each major social media platform. The creative community heavily leans progressive and is rife with world-class talent who want to help,” they wrote.
