Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

"The best chance for Mr. Trump, Republicans say, is to drive at a singular message linking Mr. Biden to the far left." nytimes.com/2020/09/06/us/…

This in turn suggests what Biden should do. @JoeBiden, if anyone operating your Twitter account is listening, the advice below is free:

It comes from one of the shrewdest people I know (at least when it comes to people, politics, and communication):

Biden needs to say two things very clearly to the American electorate:

A. He needs to state the parameters of his leftism and repudiate clearly the policies, behaviors and concepts that animate the far left and madden the center.

B. He needs to state clearly: more than anyone before in American history, Trump tells willful lies to frighten people.

Ex: "Not distortions, not innuendo, but malicious, baseless, and cynically-crafted lies.

"Trump functions by creating lie-driven fear, then offering the cure.

"What a waste of time, truth, honor, and your money."

Biden should focus, repeatedly, on making statements of the following form:

1) Trump is going to try to sell you the idea that I’m [for X or against Y.]

Really?

I voted for Y and against X 27 times between 1980 and now.

2) He’s going to tell you that I’m cozy with group X and Y.

Let him find a word I’ve said or written to support that idea or a photo of me sitting with them. He can’t. I haven’t.

3) When I hold him to account, I will back up every charge with recordings, photos, and transcripts.

4) This is what I stand for. These five ideas. This is what I will enact if your next President:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

5) We venerate, above all, these four presidents because they stood, each one, for the following five values:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Ask yourself, how many of those values has Trump embodied over the last four years?

My own further advice: Don't let Trump style himself as the only antidote to the authoritarian left. Biden should be as steadfast in his opposition to the authoritarian left as Truman was to Soviet Union.