The Biden campaign is using Thursday's debate to launch a new offensive against Trump allies' radical plans to transform the U.S. government, known as "Project 2025."It would be nice to think that the campaign is being proactive, but it's clear that Biden's team is reacting to an unexpected surge of interest in Project 2025.
... The Biden campaign wants to convince jaded voters that a second Trump presidency poses grave risks to the country. Biden officials see Project 2025 — which calls for an unprecedented expansion of presidential power — as a useful blueprint for what Trump's return would bring.
Google search interest in "Project 2025" surged earlier this month, and a John Oliver segment on Trump's plans for a second term racked up nearly 5 million views on YouTube in under a week.So the campaign didn't think it was worth devoting a section of the website to this terrifyingly extreme series of plans for a second Trump term until after John Oliver proved that there's voter interest?
...The Biden campaign ... is trying to capitalize on the viral momentum.
It launched a new website Thursday highlighting contentious policies from the Heritage Foundation's 920-page "Mandate for Leadership," a comprehensive policy guide for reshaping the federal government.
That's political malpractice. The president, the vice president, and the rest of the campaign should have been working hard to make every voter aware of Project 2025 for months.
Republicans don't wait to use a line of attack until they have evidence that it's already viral. Republicans throw everything at the wall and pursue whatever sticks. The worst case for them is that, yes, many attacks won't resonate with voters, but even those non-viral attacks will reinforce the base's outrage at Democrats and motivate base voters to turn out for Trump and other Republicans.
You know who didn't wait to launch an attack on Project 2025 until there was evidence that criticism of the project was going viral? John Oliver. He and his staff recognized that there was a lot to say about the project. They could see that his audience would be horrified if they knew about it, even though the public wasn't already talking about it. So they didn't wait.
Maybe, instead of waiting for John Oliver to tell them what lines of attack would work, Democrats should hire John Oliver -- or be like him. Go on offense. Steer the conversation rather than reacting to it. The Biden campaign shouldn't need Google search results or focus groups in order to recognize how alarming Trumpworld's plans are.
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