In recent weeks, there has been a flood of polling showing that Joe Biden is in serious trouble and is headed down the path of defeat in next year’s presidential election. These polls have had many Democrat strategists and experts panicking, quietly (and sometimes not-so-quietly) suggesting that Biden ought to bow out of the race. One such Democrat is former Obama adviser David Axelrod.
'The greatest concern is that his biggest liability is the one thing he can't change. Among all the unpredictables there is one thing that is sure: the age arrow only points in one direction,” he said in a post on X/Twitter. “Only [Joe Biden] can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it's in HIS best interest or the country’s?"
"Yes, there also is risk associated with changing course now, as there is little time left for a primary campaign — and campaigns are how we test candidates,” he conceded. "But there is a lot of leadership talent in the Democratic Party, poised to emerge."
Axelrod is arguably the architect of Obama’s 2008 campaign. He took a senator with no experience and made him a political icon and deity of the left. So Axelrod is a voice many on the left will listen to, and he even took his honesty about Biden’s problems to CNN, where he declared, "The one number in the polling that was concerning, and in the CNN poll that followed after The New York Times poll, had to do with age, and that is one thing you can’t reverse no matter how effective Joe Biden is behind the scenes. In front of the camera, what he’s projecting is causing people concerns, and that is worrisome."
Naturally, Joe Biden was a bit miffed. According to a report by Politico’s Jonathan Martin, Biden has privately called Axelrod a “p**ck” and lamented that doing so wouldn’t win him any votes.
"Calling David Axelrod 'a p**ck,' as a person who has heard Biden use the word says he does in private, is not a strategy to win 270 electoral votes,” he wrote. "And repeating a PG version of the same animus in public while litigating polling with the White House press corps also won’t make Biden’s reelection any likelier."
Related: Here’s Why Democrats Are Probably Stuck With Biden Now
Martin isn’t likely to be in Biden’s good graces either because his assessment of Biden’s candidacy was even less nuanced and diplomatic than Axelrod’s.
"For Biden to use fundraisers, as he did Thursday, to deny his difficulties and complain about press coverage may be therapeutic, but it doesn’t make him any likelier to defeat Trump once more,” he wrote. “2024 will be an extraordinary election, and it demands extraordinary measures. That’s in part for reasons Biden refuses to accept: his capacity to do the job. The oldest president in history when he first took the oath, Biden will not be able to govern and campaign in the manner of previous incumbents. He simply does not have the capacity to do it, and his staff doesn’t trust him to even try, as they make clear by blocking him from the press. Biden’s bid will give new meaning to a Rose Garden campaign, and it requires accommodation to that unavoidable fact of life."
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