To call attention to that plan amid the cacophony of 2020, the former Texas congressman rolled it out with the spectacular backdrop of Yosemite National Park. The park visit was a “religious experience,” O’Rourke later told participants at a policy roundtable, one where he’d stood “open-jawed in awe” at the splendor.
And still, that policy announcement registered as a blip on the 2020 radar.
“I understand the President has been tweeting a lot about me this morning and for a while. I wonder why the hell he’s doing that?” Biden quipped in Iowa City later that day. “I’m going to be an object of his attention for a while, folks.”
The Biden reboot
As Biden has reset the race, the candidates have displayed varying strategies to stay in contention — with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders most aggressively taking on Biden’s potential weaknesses.
Sanders, whose support is dipping as he tenuously clings to second place with 15% of potential Democratic voters in CNN’s latest poll, has sought to strengthen his position by directly criticizing Biden’s record on issues ranging from his support for the Iraq War, to NAFTA and other trade deals — a campaign strategy Sanders personally decided to pursue.
“Joe and I have very different pasts, in terms of how we have voted, and a very different vision for the future, and that is something we should be discussing,” Sanders told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin in an interview Tuesday.
For O’Rourke, who was hazed for looking like a policy lightweight when he announced in March, his campaign reboot is intended to project a more serious, policy-focused image like the one he displayed this week as he traveled with his field notes through the friendly territory of California, where thousands of people contributed to his 2018 Texas Senate campaign.
O’Rourke’s team has highlighted its struggle to keep up with Biden’s fundraising strength in its emails with subject lines like “Leveling with you” and the admission that its own fundraising has slowed. Harris’ team has repeatedly sent messages to prod supporters for new contributions by saying they are behind on their fundraising goals.
For the three Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee — Harris, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the latter two standing at 2% respectively in CNN’s poll—Wednesday’s hearing with Barr offered the opportunity for a breakout moment, similar to the ones both Harris and Klobuchar experienced during the confirmation hearings of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Moments later, Harris cited Barr’s answer as grounds to call for his resignation. And a little more than an hour later, she summarized their exchange in an email to her supporters seeking contributions.
“It seems like anytime Donald Trump feels threatened by a strong woman, he lashes out with this gross, weird attack. It’s the kind of sexism that makes me want to run my head through a wall. But instead of doing that, let’s do something productive. I know we’ve asked a lot lately — but can you step up and add a donation to Kamala’s campaign today?” Adams wrote.
She continued: “Kamala is one of the most prepared, detail-oriented people I’ve ever met — and she’s never backed down from a tough fight. Don’t you want to see her show that skill in a debate with Donald Trump?”
Booker experienced more mixed results at that same hearing as he accused Barr of normalizing unethical behavior outlined in the Mueller report. And Klobuchar tried to demonstrate the no-nonsense style that has been her trademark on the campaign trail by telling Barr that she was going to steer the discussion “out of the weeds” and then asking him to back her bipartisan legislation to protect US elections from outside influence. Barr told her he would take a look at the proposal.
Looking to break through
Other candidates like Warren and Julian Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, have adopted the slow-and-steady approach to introducing themselves to voters — predicting that old-fashioned shoe leather campaigning at events big and small will eventually pay off with Democratic voters.
Perhaps the candidate who has had the most fun with this game of inches is New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, whose slogan is “Brave Wins.” Whether it is dressing up with drag queens at an LGBT bar in Iowa, sledding in New Hampshire or playing beer pong with students — she has turned light-hearted interactions into online moments that get some pick up.
For the moment, both Castro and Gillibrand remain at 1% in CNN’s poll. The question for them, and all of the contenders behind Biden, is how to turn brief flashes of attention into sustained momentum. None of them seem to have mastered that art quite yet.
CNN’s Dan Merica and Gregory Krieg contributed to this story.
Source : CNN
