Biden Needs to Be Louder and Prouder Like Fetterman

By J. Max Robins, July 21, 2022

Joe Biden and John Fetterman are both elected Democrats hailing from Pennsylvania. The similarities between them seem to stop right there. One is an old school silent generation politico, the other is a heavy metal Millennial. Right now, their respective political fortunes are starkly different. The soon-to-be octogenarian President’s approval ratings are falling with a kind of stubborn insistence. Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Lt. Governor is several points ahead of his opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz in the U.S. Senate race and is raising a ton of cash. As Fetterman’s star rises and Biden’s wanes, the president should take note of a comeback blueprint in his fellow Keystone Stater’s bare-knuckled ways.

After being sidelined in May days before the senate primary with a life-threatening stroke, Fetterman got all 6-foot, 8-inches and 300 pounds of his rough-and-rowdy self back on the campaign trail this week. The trademark black hoodie, baggy sweat shorts and Metallica-tribute chin-beard were all intact, ready to do battle with Oz, his GOP challenger in the Pennsylvania senate race. Fetterman wasted no time, trashing his opponent on Twitter, highlighting how the ex-TV host MD had only recently moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to run for the senate. A video he posted on social media by Jersey Shore’s Snookie let Oprah’s one-time favorite doc know he would be welcome back to the Garden State, “where everybody is a hot mess,”  when he loses to Fetterman.

Fetterman Brings in the Independents

At a time when Democratic fortunes look grim for the upcoming midterm elections, the pundit class is taking note of Fetterman’s primarily progressive politics and seeing that as a pathway to victory. They’ve been observing Fetterman’s success in dominating the Democratic primary and raising $9.3 million, dwarfing Oz’s paltry $1.1 million to go along with the $2.2 million the ex-TV physician loaned his campaign. Fetterman’s no-holds-barred support of reproductive rights, ending Senate filibuster rules and flying both a rainbow flag and one emblazoned with a marijuana leaf from the Lt. The Governor’s office have, so far, made him a favorite, bringing in independents, as he looks to flip a seat currently held by Pat Toomey, a Republican. In a July 17 wet kiss op-ed in The Los Angeles Times welcoming Fetterman back to the campaign trail, Virginia Heffernan favorably compared the Pennsylvania Lt. Governor to maverick Democrats’ past—Jerry Brown and Ann Richards—and current forward-thinking iconoclasts Stacey Abrams and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

So, is there a lesson for Biden to learn from Fetterman, who supported Bernie Sanders in 2020? It would be ridiculous to think he could mimic Fetterman (although, it would be helpful if the President came back from Covid looking stronger than ever), to say nothing of Abrams or AOC However, what he can do is be the guy who surprised everybody on 2020 Super Tuesday by being himself and lift the fortunes of his party in the midterms. In a recent Puck interview, Greg Schultz, who managed the President’s successful 2020 campaign, said you have to let Biden be Biden “gaffes” and all. “There’s a rawness about him,” Shultz explained. “Sometimes it’s righteous anger, sometimes it’s vulnerability. Sometimes it’s him saying ‘Putin shouldn’t be in power,’” adding it’s that kind of authenticity that resonates with voters.

 The Power of Brash Authenticity

It’s not surprising that Shultz, a longtime Biden loyalist, is strongly in his ex-boss’s corner. However, the pro “let Joe be Joe” commentary has also been rising from some unlikely places. Progressive political commentator Greg Olear, usually a harsh critic of anyone to the right of AOC, wrote this earlier this July in his Prevail newsletter: “Reality check: Joe Biden has been a really, really, really good president. Biden took office at the most perilous moment, under the gloomiest circumstances since FDR if not Lincoln” and brought some sanity back to the White House. In the same week, Saloncolumnist Lucian Truscott IV, normally not one to heap hosannas on the President, offered this in his newsletter: “Joe Biden and his calm, sure leadership of not only this country but the western world since Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine has gotten lost in the political brouhaha about idiots like Trump and Boris Johnson and even pipsqueaks like Ron DeSantis.”

Right now, there’s plenty for Biden to be righteously and authentically angry about: The undermining of reproductive rights, the attack on marriage equality, sane environmental policy and firearm regulations. And of course, there’s that threat to democracy from the Trump-led wing of the GOP that’s been on horrific vivid display with the January 6th committee hearings. But Biden needs to be much louder and prouder on all of the above. He needs to channel his blue-collar Joe from Scranton roots, as he did throughout his successful 2020 White House bid. He needs to start thinking he’s midway through round 13 in a sluggish 15-round title fight with the cards not in his favor. Often caught in a crossfire between moderates and progressives in his own party, Biden would be wise to channel Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 mantra: “It’s the economy, stupid!” The same goes for every Democrat facing the midterm ballot box, from The Squad to the Blue Dogs and everyone in between. Just ask John Fetterman about the image of brash authenticity and some realpolitik straight talk.

J. Max Robins (@jmaxrobins) is  executive director of the Center for Communication. The former editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable, he has contributed to publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review and Forbes. Read more from J. Max Robins at www.jmaxrobins.com

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