Madison Avenue Adverts and Biden’s Narrow Path to the Mid-Term Elections

In less than two years the mid-term elections will be held, putting Democrat control of the House and Senate at risk. That control already rests on a knife-edge and mid-terms historically go badly for the party in power. Politics is not “the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best,” as defined by 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. That was a definition that held for well over a century but, unfortunately is no longer valid. Republican Newt Gingrich chewed that one up and spit it out. In my view, politics today  is the art of persuasion and really always has been—typified by the snake-oil salesman, the carnival barker and evangelist from the pulpit. Americans love snake oil and Trump was, if anything, a carnival barker extraordinaire. None of which define good old steady, experienced, reliable Joe Biden. Case in point Biden indicated in a CNN town hall Tuesday that he would be open to a more gradual phase-in, to allay concerns among business owners…