The fundamental decency of Joe Biden

His best trait.

(President Joe Biden)

Regular readers know I am very skeptical about Joe Biden’s prospects in 2024. Voters seem to have made up their mind that he is too old for the office (another poll out this weekend showed that) and that his handling of the economy has been less than successful.

But, if Biden is going to win — and I think it’s about a 50-50 proposition right now — it will be because, at root, he is a fundamentally decent human being. It is, by far, his best political trait and the one I would cling hardest to if I was running his reelection campaign — especially considering his likely general election opponent.

Two recent episodes highlight the basic decency of Biden.

The first came in the wake of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s second episode of freezing — literally — on camera. That incident set off a swirl of speculation about McConnell’s health and his ability to stay in his leadership role.

Biden, during a trip to FEMA, was asked about McConnell. Here’s what he said:

“I spoke to him today, Biden said of McConnell. “And he was his old self on the telephone.” He added: “It’s not at all unusual to have the response that sometimes happens to Mitch when you’ve had a severe concussion. It’s part of the recovery. And so I’m confident he’ll be back to his old self.”

Can you imagine what Donald Trump would have done if, say, Nancy Pelosi had a similar freezing episode? It would likely have gone something like this: “It looked so bad. I hope’s she ok. But boy did it look bad. Something is going on there….”

The entire thing would be aimed at raising even more questions and suspicions rather than quieting them. It would have been dousing the fire with lighter fluid rather than trying to stamp it out.

The second episode happened over the weekend as Biden visited areas of Florida most severely affected by Hurricane Idalia.

During a press conference in the state, a reporter asked whether Biden was disappointed that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t meet him during his visit.

It was a total softball —if Biden had wanted to swing at it. Which he didn’t.

“No I’m not disappointed,” said Biden. “He may have had other reasons. He did help us plan this. He sat with FEMA and decided where we should go and where would be the least disruption.”

Which is incredibly gracious — especially when you consider that it’s a near certainty that DeSantis actively avoided Biden because of politics. DeSantis didn’t want a picture of him and Biden glad-handing in the middle of a Republican primary in which the leader — one Donald Trump — is running on a message that Biden is running a massive crime operation out of the White House.

No doubt DeSantis had images of then New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enthusiastically greeting then President Barack Obama in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012 in his head.

Which Biden could have wryly noted! Or hinted at. He did neither.

Again, ask yourself how a President Trump would have handled that situation. He would have almost certainly mocked the governor for not showing up — “I guess he’s afraid to be seen with me!” and turned the entire trip into a grievance session.

These may seem like two small instances in what will be a long and nasty campaign for president. And they are! But I also think they are illustrative of the advantage Biden has over Trump in a general election: People generally think he is a good guy.

There’s no specific poll data on the “good human” question but there’s lots of stuff that get at what I am talking about.

In the 2020 exit poll, Biden won 75% of the voters who said the a president who could unite the country mattered most to their vote. He won 68% of the voters who said a president with “good judgement” was most important to them.

Biden also regularly leads Trump on questions of honesty and integrity.

The reality is that for all of the talk of Hunter Biden and other allegations of wrongdoing by the Biden family, the average swing voters simply does not believe that Joe Biden is a scheming bad guy.

They may well think he is too old — or even incompetent. But they think that, at his core, he is trying to do what he believes to be the right thing for the American people.

That fact is why Trump’s attempts to vilify Biden during the 2020 campaign didn’t work. (And why they DID work against Hillary Clinton, about whom there is much less of a reservoir of good will among the public.)

In short: The whole “Uncle Joe” thing is real. People vote for Biden because they believe him to be a decent human being with a fundamental goodness in his intentions.

That’s the Biden brand. Heart in the right place — even if the decision-making isn’t perfect. A flawed but well meaning leader.

That, to me, is the contrast that Biden needs to set up if he wants to beat Trump again next November. That the choice in the election is between someone with a basic sense of decency and someone who doesn’t now and has never cared about that particular trait.

To be frank, we may be in a place where that’s not enough. Where people are so angry and disillusioned that they just want change — no matter what that change looks like.

But, for Biden to win, he needs to make this election about who we are, fundamentally, as Americans. In his 2020 campaign announcement, he said that we are in a “battle for the soul of this nation.” That’s no less true now.