It always amuses me the way Democrats put so much emphasis on Joe Biden's performance at the State of the Union to reset his campaign. For weeks, it was their go-to response to address concerns about his ability to handle the presidency. "Did you see that fiery speech?" "His speech was so fiery, of course he can handle the job!" "That fiery speech took the age issue off the table!" etc., etc.
Biden did indeed get a small bump from the speech, but it was small, and short, and it's over now. The only thing that has been reset is Trump's advantage in the polls—both national and battleground state polls—and Joe Biden isn't likely to get another opportunity like the State of the Union to turn things around. He didn't reclaim the lead in the RealClearPolitics average once during the bump.
Polls have been showing for months that Joe Biden is in real trouble. He's lost support from Hispanic, black, and young voters—which is a bad position for him to be in. Yet polls typically range from showing a tight race to one where Trump has a formidable lead. Even the polls showing a close race offer insight as to why Joe Biden is struggling to regain the ground he's lost.
Related: Now We Know Why Bidenomics Is So Terrible
For example, the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll shows a tight race, with Biden leading by one point with registered voters—down from four points in their previous survey. Many in the liberal media can't wrap their heads around why Trump is even competitive given his current legal troubles.
It comes down to the issues.
Trump, moreover, leads in trust to handle six of 10 issues tested in the survey, with Biden ahead in just two. That includes, for Trump, the three most-cited issues in importance -- the economy, on which he has a 14-point advantage; inflation, again 14 points; and crime and safety, 8 points. He tops out with a 17-point lead in trust to handle immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and leads by 8 points in trust to handle the war between Israel and Hamas and 7 points on "America's standing in the world." Biden's leads are on abortion access (+12, but comparatively low-rated as an issue) and health care, +5.
That's a rather longwinded way of saying that Joe Biden's presidency has been a disaster, and people acknowledge that things were better under Trump. This is by no means the first or only poll that has shown that Trump has significant leads on the issues that matter most to voters.
Other factors help explain why, despite his weaknesses, Biden is in the game. He leads by 16 points on one important personal attribute, being seen as honest and trustworthy, and is about tied with Trump on two others -- representing your personal values (Biden +3) and understanding the problems of people like you (Biden +1). And while neither is popular, more people see Biden favorably as a person, 40%, than see Trump favorably, 33%.
It's true that (for some reason) voters like Joe Biden more personally, but after struggling for years thanks to Bidenomics, that doesn't matter. This isn't a congeniality contest, is it? The only way Biden can potentially make up ground is to regain Americans' trust on the issues, and yet he's already shown that he can't do that. His efforts to flip the script on immigration haven't worked, and his economic messaging failed so horribly that you don't really hear much talk about "Bidenomics" anymore. Meanwhile, recent economic reports haven't been good and suggest that stagflation and a recession are coming, if they're not already here.
