Brian Beutler has some advice in his excellent newsletter OffMessage today for the Biden campaign that doesn’t include throwing up their hands and saying “Oh my God we’re so bad that we’re giving up and will open up the convention to anyone who wants to try for it!” This might actually be useful: At the outset we should stipulate that if Donald Trump were in office today—presiding over full employment at a time when Americans enjoyed more purchasing power than ever before, and inflation was hovering steadily around three percent—he and Republican officeholders across the country would claim credit for building the greatest economy in history. In fact, if Trump defeats Joe Biden in November, they’ll all sing from that hymnal by early 2025. The news media will scratch its head and finally notice, Gosh, this is a strong economy! Economic sentiment will spike as Republican voters come around to the Trump line in unison, while most Democratic voters—who are much less driven by partisanship in their responses to survey takers—will continue to acknowledge the economy is strong. Nothing will change in the macroeconomic or policy realm, but public opinion will kip upright. I know a bunch of liberals who disagree with each other over what Biden should do to change economic sentiment. I don’t know any who doubt my premise: Republicans would love to inherit this economy. They’d brag about how it became good the moment they took charge, and they’d quickly reap the political spoils. Nevertheless, the emerging Democratic consensus…