Biden had a big rally in Philadelphia yesterday. As with his announcement video, it was all pretty standard rhetoric, with a memorable zinger on Trump inheriting the recovery and everything else in his life that we’ll likely hear many times again. But no one else in the Democratic field has this message of wanting to work with Republicans and having the experience to do it once everything supposedly returns to normal after Trump’s defeat in 2020. This is a pretty good general-election message. One thing that makes Biden look like such a strong candidate out of the gate — stronger than I expected — is that perhaps he can make this message also resonant in the primaries and avoid making any big concessions to Left that would hurt him in the general, the way pretty much every Democratic candidate already has. We’re just getting started, so we’ll see. I’m still skeptical about the ultimate appeal of an elder statesman promising a restoration, and Biden hasn’t had to weather any gaffe-controversies — yet.

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