On Friday, we learned that presidential candidate Joe Biden, now the Democratic front-runner, was planning to begin “shadow-briefings” to compete with President Trump’s daily briefs on the coronavirus crisis.
The Biden briefs hadn’t started yet because the Biden home, as Ben Bowles noted, is being outfitted with newfangled equipment to support in-home broadcasting.
Most Americans would think of that as something maybe a step more elaborate than having a Facebook, Skype, or YouTube account, and a computer with a camera and microphone built in or connected to it.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
A professional camera arrangement is probably in order. There are numerous companies that would happily provide just such services, with mobile broadcasting built in. For front-running, Democratic presidential candidates, the standard media outlets would show up to do it on their own dime.
Beyond that, a backdrop in the office or den would be a nice touch.
Biden’s own take on the situation on Friday sounded a little distressful, relative to what seems to be the scope of the problem:
“The bottom line is that everything from providing better access to where I physically live and be able to broadcast from there, as well as our headquarters is underway. We’ve hired a professional team to do that now,” Biden told reporters.
“It’s a little above my pay-grade, as to how we do that, but that’s desperately what we’re trying to do because I want to be in daily or at least you know significant contact with the American people and communicate what I would be doing what I think we should be doing and how we should be doing it, but I promise you, that’s on the way, hopefully, God willing, by Monday.”
Now, however, it sounds like the Bidens may need to purchase a whole new home to get the job done.
ABC News adds this detail:
A source with knowledge of the campaign said Biden’s team is working on scaling up that infrastructure and dealing with the realities of Biden’s Wilmington Home, like the fact that there aren’t particularly high ceilings, which can make lighting a challenge.
This has naturally invited a lot of social media commentary on the Bidens’ Wilmington home, which backs charmingly onto a pond fed by Little Mill Creek. (H/t Zero Hedge)
This house has low ceilings and poor lighting? pic.twitter.com/LDDTyefdA3
— ?Kathy Burn it down for real Durkin ☭ ? (@nowwerevolt) March 22, 2020
A front view of the Biden home is particularly informative, clarifying that if the ceilings are lower than about 12 feet on the two main floors, there has to be some interior adjustment at work to ensure that.
For reference, this is Joe Biden's house: pic.twitter.com/n1MeVmJK4m
— Bel Biv Divorced (@BuyErasers) March 22, 2020
Maybe the abundance of windows increases the interior lighting challenge.
Joe and Jill Biden built the house themselves after buying the land in the late 1990s. The question does arise why the ceilings would not be “particularly high,” or what that even means.
But that too is probably above former Vice President Biden’s paygrade.