President Joe Biden’s massive gaffe in referring to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as his arch nemesis Vladimir Putin – and then confusing his own Vice-President Kamala Harris with his rival Donald Trump – represents an additional difficulty for his campaign for a second term, according to Flinders University politics expert Professor Rodrigo Praino.

Professor Praino says Biden’s errors, on the back of his recent poor debate performance, leave the US Democrats and the President in a hard position.

“Most voters operate in what we call a low-information environment. In the past two weeks the political debate in the US has revolved around the question of Biden’s fitness for office, and every small misstep adds fuel to the fire.

“If we then combine this with the emerging trends of disinformation and misinformation campaigns, a small gaffe with some clever editing can generate powerful ‘cheapfakes’ that can influence voters that unfortunately are less and less engaged in the intricacies of policy debates.”

“Time is of the essence with the Democratic convention looming on 19 August. Replacing a presidential candidate before the convention is easier and probably viewed as a more democratic process than replacing a candidate after the convention. Any decision on whether or not the President will run should be made before 19 August.

Professor Rodrigo Praino is Director of the Jeff Bleich Centre for Democracy and Disruptive Technologies and an expert in decision-making and political behaviour. For over a decade, he has conducted successful research on elections, focusing on how voters make decisions in a context of low-information. His publications in this area cover a wide range of issues, including the effect of political scandals and corruption, the political behaviour of young voters, the political representation of women, and the role of candidate physical appearance.

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore (August 2019) Image used under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 (Link)