Former Obama campaign advisers Axelrod and Plouffe urge Biden to 'up the tempo'
David Axelrod, a former senior strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, and David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, have a message for former Vice President: "up the tempo."
In an op-ed published Monday in The New York Times, Axelrod and Plouffe said that while Biden's presidential campaign "has taken impressive steps" recently, the presumptive Democratic nominee will have to continue that momentum, especially in the digital realm, if he's out to outmaneuver the Trump re-election campaign — which has fully embraced social media — before November's general election. "Online speeches from his basement won't cut it," the op-ed reads.
But they don't want Biden to be simply more active in the digital sphere. The content matters, too, and they're urging him to throw out his civility playbook. "You don't defeat an incumbent by playing defense," Axelrod and Plouffe wrote.
Instead, they want Biden to "behave more like an insurgent" while using "facts, humor, and mockery" to take advantage of the opportunities Trump provides. "It isn't hard to get a rise out of this thin-skinned president and knock him off his game," the Obama advisers wrote. "Be a speedboat, not a battleship. Make him react to you." Read more at The New York Times.
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