How do you tell 56% of Americans not to vote for you — and that they’re fools to boot — and expect to win? Donald Trump got credited with playing eight-dimensional chess more than a few times in 2016 and afterward. Maybe this is sixteen-level Parcheesi.

While in Cincinnati, Biden offered this bon mot to the majority in the latest Gallup poll about the famous Ronald Reagan re-elect question:

Biden says 56 percent of Americans shouldn’t vote for him because they think they’re doing better under Trump. https://t.co/w3fK1jZi6o

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 13, 2020

WKRC: Gallup reported last week 56% of Americans said they were better off today than they were four years ago—would’ve been under the Obama-Biden administration. So why should people who feel they are better off today, under the Trump administration, vote for you?

BIDEN: Well, if they think that, they probably shouldn’t. They think 54% [sic] percent of the American are better off economically today than they were under our administration? Well, their memory is not very good, quite frankly.

And in addition to that, we have a president who doesn’t share the values of most Americans. He’s not very honest with people. He is flouting the conventions relative to public safety in terms even now not wearing a mask.

As I wrote last week, the Gallup results seem a bit surprising, considering the COVID-19 shutdowns and the economic damage they have wrought. It strongly suggests that people aren’t really blaming Trump for that, though, especially since it’s been clear for months that Trump wants to err on the side of reopening. (And now even WHO is taking that position, apparently.) That may be why Trump got the highest level of support in the history of Gallup’s polling on that question since it began in 1984.

No doubt Biden has trouble understanding that result; it is odd, and it runs counter to his argument that the economy was going to hell even before COVID-19, which it clearly was not. However, Biden apparently hasn’t been well briefed on the Gallup results, because everything else in that poll suggests that it won’t help Trump in the end. Trump even edges Biden on policy (within the margin of error), but voters think better of Biden on a personal and professional level. Trump’s personality and chaos-agent tactics are undermining his economic message.

So Biden has a perfect opening here to sympathize with voters and to assure them that a Biden administration will improve on the status quo. What does Biden do instead? He suggests that voters have memory problems, that they can’t assess their own situations for themselves, and that he doesn’t want their votes. In short, Biden’s calling those voters idiots, even though it appears a significant number of them look open to voting on the character issue rather than the economics.

As the NY Post’s Kelly Jane Torrance observed, “Time and time again, he shows an odd antipathy to voters.” Biden barely manages to hide his contempt for them, and goes out of his way to project his elitism and his condescension. As a final pitch, it’s at least honest. Biden’s ask is “Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?” Choose accordingly.