Sausage Update: Late Wednesday night, the Senate passed the $2.2 trillion aid package. The final hitch in the process was a small group of Republican Senators, led by Lindsey Graham, who complained that some workers on extended unemployment might make actually make more money than they would at work. They would be \u201cdis-incentivized to work,\u201d they said. But ultimately the bill passed by unanimous consent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaker Pelosi signed onto the bill. It will pass the House on Friday by voice vote. No one will call the roll, nor will anyone even call for a quorum. Most House members are back in their districts, and they\u2019re not coming back. Unanimous consent will put the bill on the President\u2019s desk. The sausage is made, with all sides getting things they wanted, and accepting things they don\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t tell anyone, but the United States is in the middle of a Presidential election.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s been going on for over a year, and while it seemed to \u201cgo away\u201d during the Presidential impeachment, and now again in the corona-virus crisis, it\u2019s still out there.\u00a0\u00a0Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are still contesting for the Democratic nomination, though Biden seems to have an insurmountable delegate lead.\u00a0\u00a0The nominating convention is in July, and unlike the Olympic Summer Games, it can\u2019t be put off until 2021.\u00a0\u00a0If we’re still \u201csocially distancing\u201d by then, Democrats (and Republicans later) will need to find a wholly different way to choose their candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden and Sanders are faced with a quandary, one that I\u2019m growing familiar with as well. As a (substitute) teacher for the remainder of the school year, I am trying to find strategies and techniques to teach a class I can\u2019t meet, have a face-to-face discussion, or even touch. I know that sounds weird, but part of keeping 7th<\/sup> grade boys on task is as simple as teaching from right beside their chair, and casually tapping them on the shoulder to bring them back to focus. I can\u2019t reach through their computer screen and do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I\u2019m learning new techniques and different ways to catch and keep my middle school students\u2019 attention. It\u2019s about \u201cold dogs\u201d learning new tricks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And there\u2019s no question that Biden and Sanders are \u201cold dogs\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0They are tactile campaigners (and no, I\u2019m not accusing either of anything improper).\u00a0\u00a0Biden and Sanders gain energy from their supporters; they are excited about shaking hands and holding babies.\u00a0\u00a0Their \u201cpower\u201d is personal as well as political.\u00a0\u00a0And that\u2019s been shorn from this campaign.\u00a0\u00a0Now all they can do is find new ways to reach out, to make a dent in the electorate.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s even harder to do when the entire nation is focused on something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Trump has a similar problem.\u00a0\u00a0He has two main communication techniques:\u00a0\u00a0the rally and the tweet.\u00a0\u00a0And now the rally is gone:\u00a0\u00a0there will be no more \u201clock her up\u201d chants for the foreseeable future. His tweets are still effective, he\u2019s gone back to attacking his favorite enemy, CNN.\u00a0\u00a0\u201c\u2026They are CORRUPT & FAKE NEWS\u201d he says, talking about reporting of him isolated in the White House wondering, \u201cwhen life will return to normal\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of course he is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But tweets have never energized his base and his campaign; it\u2019s been the face-to-face contact, the rallies.\u00a0\u00a0So he\u2019s tried a new technique.\u00a0\u00a0Trump\u2019s dusted off the old James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, the place where Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders met their ultimate demise.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s where he drags out his \u201ccrisis team,\u201d Vice President Pence, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and a cast of other assorted members.\u00a0\u00a0Those folks stand (way, way too close together by the way) as the President\u2019s backdrop for his new technique \u2013 the press briefing rant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015 when Donald Trump was considered a joke as a Presidential candidate, he was desperate for airtime on national \u201cnews\u201d programs. He managed to get more free time by calling into television shows like Fox and Friends <\/em>and Morning Joe <\/em>(on MSNBC) then all the other candidates combined. His hours of on-air phone conversations seemed to legitimize his candidacy, and led him to become a \u201creal\u201d candidate for President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2020 President Trump has found a new way to captivate the nation. The corona-virus crisis has given him center stage on daily national press conferences. There he gets to tell how \u201csmart\u201d he was to stop travel from China, and how much he\u2019s helping the state governors. He then gets to attack his favorite enemy, sitting there in front of him, the press. And he gets to do it all on uncontested national television, in an arena where anyone who contradicts his message can be \u201cslain\u201d by his cutting remark: \u201cthat\u2019s a nasty question\u201d or \u201cyou\u2019re a lousy reporter\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n National news organizations are well aware of the trap they fell into in 2015. And they know what\u2019s going on now. NBC, ABC and CBS cut away from the President when he strayed past 6:30pm, into their national newscasts. So now the President talks until 6:30, then lumbers off the stage leaving Pence and the rest to continue on the 24-hour news channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s little Biden (or Sanders) can do to compete with Trump at this point.\u00a0\u00a0They can focus on online media, and the constant flow of emails to registered Democrats.\u00a0\u00a0And they can try to contrast their \u201cnormal\u201d approach to national crisis to this President\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0But all of that doesn\u2019t give them the opportunity of the national audience Trump is able to grab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a nation \u201csheltering in place\u201d it\u2019s hard to imagine what a general Presidential election will look like. But with our current crisis, it\u2019s also hard to see how we will \u201creturn to normal\u201d. We are not only changing our lifestyles in education, but in politics as well. All the \u201cold dogs\u201d will have to find new ways to campaign. And all us voters may have to find as new way to vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Politics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Old Dogs, New Tricks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
National Attention<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What Campaign<\/h3>\n\n\n\n