Obama campaign vets give Joe Biden a battle plan he can use to flatten Trump this fall

David Axelrod and David Plouffe, who were top strategists in former President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid, believe that former Vice President Joe Biden needs to do more than what he's doing right now to defeat President Donald Trump this fall.

Although Biden currently leads in polls, Axelrod and Plouffe warn in the New York Times that lead won't last if the Biden campaign isn't prepared for the onslaught of attacks the Trump campaign is poised to launch.

"Mr. Trump’s team knows they can’t win a referendum on his leadership, so they will try to disqualify Mr. Biden," they write. "That process has already begun with an extensive campaign, led by the president, regularly questioning the mental acuity and physical stamina of the man he has branded 'Sleepy Joe.' The Trump campaign and its surrogates are relentlessly pushing this and other scurrilous attacks online."

Axelrod and Plouffe recommend that Biden's team do more to respond in real time to the president's COVID-19 press events, where he often shoots himself in the foot by musing about injecting disinfectant or ranting about getting worse treatment than assassinated former President Abraham Lincoln.

"Still, with creative and timely interventions, Mr. Biden can turn the tables on Mr. Trump," they write. "To do this, the challenger needs to behave more like an insurgent, building the capacity to wield facts, humor and mockery at lightning speed in those surreal moments of opportunity that Mr. Trump regularly provides. (Simple example: a Biden video, fired off in real time: 'This is a cup of Lysol. It is poison. Please do not drink it.')"

Read the whole op-ed here.