Democrats have a leader that has 50%+ negative approval polling numbers…..
He isn’t the guy to get invites for the rallies….
They actually aren’t his forte…
The President is doing what he has done for his entire political career…
Low Key….
His last boss, Barack Obama, WILL be doing some instead….
There is nothing quite like having a president at a big, boisterous campaign rally. And Democrats in four cities — Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee and Las Vegas — will get that chance this month, in the final days of voting that will decide who controls Congress, governors’ offices and statehouses.
But it won’t be President Biden. It will be former President Barack Obama.
Mr. Biden has not held a campaign rally since before Labor Day, even as the future of his agenda and his own political career are at stake in the midterm elections. His low profile on the campaign trail reflects his low approval rating, and White House officials say the president has made a point of delivering speeches on the party’s accomplishments, rather than taking part in rallies sponsored by political campaigns.
With less than three weeks until Election Day and polls suggesting Democratic enthusiasm is waning, Mr. Biden’s strategy is clear: He will help Democrats raise money and will continue to hopscotch the country talking about infrastructure, negotiated drug prices, student debt relief and investments in computer chip manufacturing. But his decision not to participate, so far at least, in rallies that are normally a staple of campaign season highlights how little the president can do to help his fellow Democrats, even with the megaphone of the Oval Office.
It is a remarkably low-key campaign effort by a president facing what could be among the biggest rebukes of his political life: Republicans are poised to retake control of one or both houses of Congress, an outcome that would reshape politics in Washington and likely end any hope that Democrats have of making progress on abortion rights, gun control, police reform, voting rights or tax fairness….
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Mr. Biden’s plans for the final stretch of the election season are in stark contrast with those of his immediate predecessors in both parties. Former President Donald J. Trump held 26 rallies in October 2018, including nine in the final four days of the midterm elections that year. Mr. Obama held 16 campaign rallies in October 2010, even though his approval rating was about the same then — at 44 percent — as Mr. Biden’s is now.
Mr. Obama’s office has announced that the former president will headline at least four major rallies in the run-up to Election Day. In Nevada, he will join Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who is trailing in the polls, and other candidates for an early vote rally on Nov. 1….
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Mr. Biden’s advisers reject the idea that he is being too low-key and say they have crafted a midterm election strategy that fits his brand as a politician who tries to be above the political fray. They argue that the president and Democrats have accomplished more than his predecessors in a short period, and that it’s better to boast about those accomplishments in official venues, not highly partisan ones.
image….Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times