Astoundingly, Joe Biden appears to be regaining his mojo. Over the course of a couple of calls and countless emails the last two weeks with the President and his top advisors, as well as in our public writings and commentary, we’ve been vocal in how we believe Biden can still bounce back from his disastrous debate misfire despite the ample naysayers – and even more importantly, how he can counter the widespread perception that he is slipping, drawing on 5 key lessons from one of the author’s book, Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters (co-authored with Andrew Ward).
Things got off to an inauspicious start. For the first few days post-debate, we were concerned that some of Biden’s staffers were mishandling the response, digging the hole even deeper by swatting away concerns over the President’s age while being overly protective in shielding the President from unscripted interpersonal interactions.
But now Biden is finally hitting his stride and getting back to what he does best – turning adversity into resilience.
Here are five dimensions of firing back where Biden fell flat before but is now on the path to recovering with vigor:
From last week to this week, there was a night-and-day difference between the two conference calls held by the Biden campaign with top donors. We joined both calls, and like many others, we were struck by the difference in tone and approach.
Last week’s donor call somehow managed to upset even Biden’s most fervent supporters, with top campaign staff bashing media and belittling critics for bringing up the President’s age, gaslighting participants with “you didn’t really see what you saw.”
In stark contrast, Monday’s donor call featured President Biden himself unexpectedly engaging in unscripted Q&A, greeting longtime friends warmly while tackling difficult questions head-on. Just........