When Biden calls a 'lid,' Democrats wet the bed - and Trump starts mocking

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/25/biden-campaign-lid-trump-421824

If calling a “lid" enters the mainstream American lexicon, this will be
the week it all started.

Joe Biden called a lid — the arcane term reporters use when a politician
is done traveling for the day — at 1:02 p.m. Friday; 9:20 a.m. Thursday;
9:22 a.m. Tuesday and 8:34 a.m. Saturday. Biden’s early turn-ins provoked
the Twitter set, professionally nervous Democrats (OK, bedwetters) and,
notably, Donald Trump to scratch their heads or rain down ridicule.

“Did you see he did a ‘lid’ this morning again?” Trump asked Thursday
evening in Jacksonville, Fla., pausing to offer a definition for the
inside-baseball term. “A lid is when you put out word you’re not going to
be campaigning today. So, he does a lid all the time.”

Trump made a similar crack at Biden's expense Tuesday in Moon Township,
Pa. He gleefully repeated the single-syllable word, to the genuine delight
of his campaign aides, who now consider it their favorite new bit from his
rallies. In both cities this week, and again Friday, Trump compared his
recent barnstorming to Biden’s days at home preparing for events, raising
money via virtual events and recuperating.

“I’m working my ass off,” said Trump, whose own weekend golf outings and
TV obsession are mocked endlessly by liberals. “I'm in Ohio. I'm in Texas.
I'm in Florida. I’m in Michigan. I'm in Wisconsin."

Friday offered yet more contrast. Biden, who's been preparing for next
week’s debate, flew to Washington to pay his last respects to Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, then formally settled down at home just as the lunch hour
ended. Trump’s day had him stopping in Doral, Fla.; Atlanta, Ga.; and
Newport News, Va. — a schedule FOX Business hailed as “REMARKABLE” in a
characteristically flattering chyron.

Trump is keeping close watch on Biden's movements. In Atlanta, he noted
Biden had returned home, again.

"Hey champ, if I lose to a guy — that’s like you losing to a fighter that,
you know, hasn’t worked out in the last six months. This guy never goes
out! It’s terrible, huh?" Trump asked, reviving his "low-energy" critiques
of Biden. "You better make sure I win. I’m gonna be very embarrassed, I
lost to a guy that didn’t campaign!"

The gambit: To hear the Biden campaign tell it, his travel schedule
doesn’t matter. Aides say the criticism leveled by Trump concerning
Biden’s events and his calling “lids” is more interesting to restive or
bored social media addicts than to the public at large.

To Biden’s camp, it’s a continuation of the discredited criticism that the
shelter-in-place phase of Biden’s campaign would hurt him and help Trump
after the pandemic first hit. (Trump needled him endlessly for being
"sleepy" and staying in his basement, but Biden’s team has chuckled as he
maintained his polling lead). A Biden adviser said it’s fine to let Trump
hold big, dangerous rallies during a pandemic. Anyway, Trump's aversion to
telling the truth has taken all the sting out of the attacks, Biden's
staff asserts.

“This is a referendum on Trump, and we’re not playing his game. You
shouldn’t, either,” the Biden adviser instructed. “Real people don’t care
about Biden’s travel. Fox [News] does. This is not what people are talking
about. Look at the polling: It’s littered with hot takes about Biden that
have been proven stone-cold wrong time and again.”

It's true, the public isn’t exactly pining for in-person events. Forty
percent of voters— and 51 percent of Democrats — told the POLITICO/Morning
Consult Poll this week that they don’t think candidates should be on the
road at all because of the coronavirus.

There’s also merit to the observation about media. While Fox News has
echoed Trump’s critiques, the rest of the networks have spent far more
time on the virus that has sickened 7 million Americans and killed more
than 203,000 — as well as Trump’s repeated refusals to commit to a
peaceful transition of power should he lose in November.

If Biden’s campaign was sensitive about their early lids, there are
workarounds. He could go out for a quick lunch, or afternoon ice cream
cone, and chit-chat with voters as the press pool follows. He could keep
his travel options open, and not call a lid until later in the day.

Biden addressed Trump's "sleepy" hits on WRAL-TV this week in North
Carolina. "Watch me. Look at him,” Biden said, pointing to Trump's verbal
miscues, questionable medical advice and apparent struggles to navigate a
ramp earlier this year. "I’m not the guy who says 'inject bleach in your
arm.' I do know the difference between truth and lies, between good and
bad, between hope and fear. Just watch me. And make your decision."

A top Democratic pollster agreed with Biden’s campaign, but with a more
brutal assessment of the candidate. The person pointed to his penchant for
gaffes and rambling stories as part of the strategy for keeping Biden
bottled up.

“The fact is a cardboard cutout could beat Trump. But Biden could lose to
him,” the pollster said. “There’s no win in Biden being out on the trail
the way Trump wants. The Biden campaign has been smart about that.”

The longer view: Biden is hardly a shut-in. He called a lid at 9:03 p.m.
Wednesday; 10:23 p.m. Monday and 10:09 p.m. last Friday, after swings
through North Carolina, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The former vice president
finished at 3:40 p.m. Sunday, after appearing in Philadelphia for a speech
on the death of Ginsburg and the future of the Supreme Court.

Yet he’s built in considerable down stretches. Sundays, there’s church and
usually little more. Biden has yet to overnight outside his home. And
since mid-August, he’s had at least 20 days without holding a traditional
campaign event, though the tally of his public schedules doesn’t account
for virtual fundraisers or private strategy sessions with aides.

Trump stayed overnight during a recent West Coast jaunt through Arizona,
Nevada and California. While he made a similar overnight trip to Arizona
and Nevada ahead of the 2018 midterm election, Trump also prefers to
return home for the night after campaign rallies, and did so often during
his first run for president in 2016.

So, it's tempting, if not fashionable, to acquiesce to the “nothing
matters” point of view given the steadiness of the race and Trump’s
failures to break through. Biden’s strategy of standing aside and letting
Trump light himself on fire has been successful. Why change it now?

But some Democrats have grown nervous about the lack of an on-ground
presence and, in the case of states like Florida, Biden's softening voter-
registration numbers.

In the end, they’re hoping the polls are right in nearly every
battleground state and that antipathy for Trump is so strong it inspires
enough turnout to compensate for the relative lack of enthusiasm Biden’s
base might have for its candidate.


--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.

Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.

Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."