Trump has to make the case that, in those 47 years, Joe Biden was a traitor to Scranton. Joe Biden supported the adoption of NAFTA, he supported China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization, he supported Iraq War. Joe Biden supported giving credit-card companies more latitude to prey on their customers with higher interests rates. Or making credit-card debt higher to discharge in bankruptcy. He made life better for college administrators and harder for aspiring members of the middle class by making student debt impossible to discharge. During a pandemic-induced economic crisis, Joe Biden still supports a massive expansion of immigration.

Donald Trump should be highlighting that, until the COVID-19 crisis, his tough stance on immigration, his tougher stance on trade, and his tax and deregulatory policies led to real increase of wages and record-low unemployment for working-class people, especially blacks and Hispanics.

Trump not only missed the chance to go at Biden for his 47 years of leaving Scranton behind. He failed to connect other parts of his case against Biden to this theme. When Joe Biden spoke about the tragic death of his son Beau, Trump blew past the moment heedlessly — in a way many will find disrespectful — to talk about Hunter Biden.