Have you picked your jaw up off the floor yet at the unprecedented launch of the incumbent President of the United State’s re-election campaign with a lame video?
“A pre-recorded announcement?” marvels my colleague, Vodkapundit. “When someone announces they’re running for president, it’s a massive public event featuring the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd the candidate can muster. When it’s a sitting president, the pageantry and the crowds are practically built in. But not for Doddering Joe, whose people had to trickle out a video because they can’t trust their man to draw a crowd, not to screw it all up, or wander the wrong direction off the stage at the end.”
He’s certainly got the part about Biden not being able to draw a crowd right. Though we’re told Team Biden somehow magicked up a record 81 million votes in 2020, even during that campaign the doddering Democrat couldn’t draw a crowd. And now, a new poll from NBC reveals that enthusiasm for more of the same in 2024 is lacking, to say the least.
Recommended: Four More Years? Not If We Can Help It
According to NBC’s survey of 1,000 Americans, the eventual Republican candidate beats Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election by 6%. Note that the poll margin of error is a little over 3%.
The poll, administered April 14–18, 2023, found support for Donald Trump is solid among Republicans, with two-thirds saying they back the former president and aren’t deterred by Democrat operatives’ politically motivated prosecutions of the candidate. However, “Substantial majorities of Americans don’t want Trump or President Joe Biden to run for president in 2024, setting up a potentially divisive and uninspiring general-election rematch between the two men,” observes NBC News’ analysis of the poll.
Then the report walloped Biden with yet another striking bit of bad news: “According to the survey, 70% of all Americans — including 51% of Democrats — believe he should not run for a second term.”
Ouch! Those aren’t great conditions under which to launch your lame campaign with an underwhelming video. (And honestly, anyone who’s sat through a corporate Zoom meeting has seen better videos.)
NBC offers a comparison: “As for Trump, 60% of Americans — including a third of Republicans — think the former president shouldn’t run in 2024.” Not great, but better than Biden.
The poll also found that Biden’s approval currently stands at 41% approve/54% disapprove. This underwater score is almost a complete reversal of his approval rating two years ago, in April 2021, when his presidency was young. At that point, Biden’s performance approval stood at 53/39.
But none of this matters. The DNC has cast the die and closed ranks around their codger. They’ve locked down the primary by refusing even to hold debates. Biden/Harris 2024 is a done deal.
But a lot can happen between now and November 2024, and the Democrats have plenty of time to rue the day they made this decision.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member