Long before Joe Biden announced his reelection bid, he had everything going against him.
He has been dogged by low approval ratings and an administration marked by frequent stumbles. His approval ratings have consistently hovered below 40%, thanks to his mishandling of the economy, inflation, the border crisis, and foreign policy blunders. And then, of course, there's the issue of his advanced age and cognitive decline. Polls have consistently shown that a bipartisan majority of voters think Biden is too old to be president.
Naturally, when it was reported that Democrats are in a “full-blown freakout” over Joe Biden, it made perfect sense. For all the talking points claiming Biden has been a successful president, regular people don’t feel that they are thriving under his policies. According to Politico, there is a "gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they’ll text their friends,” and their concerns about the election have only gotten worse as it nears.
A key problem for the Biden campaign is that his path to victory looks extremely narrow at this point. Trump has had consistent leads in Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. To pull off a victory, Biden needs to sweep the Great Lakes states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. At present, Trump leads in all three, and he is growing his lead in Pennsylvania while he also appears to be competitive in Minnesota, Virginia, and possibly Maine and New Hampshire.
Meanwhile, Trump’s trial over his nondisclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels is nearing a close, and even CNN experts are admitting how bad the case against him was. As if Joe Biden’s troubles weren’t bad enough, Trump could be vindicated this week, and Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial is expected to start next week.
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On top of that, after months of Biden boasting about a significant fundraising advantage, Trump out-raised him in April. Biden is now enlisting Barack Obama, the Clintons, and Hollywood stars to help boost his campaign.
“Donors ask me on an hourly basis about what I think,” an adviser to major Democratic Party campaign donors told Politico. He added that it was “so much easier to show them, so while they read it, I can pour a drink.”
The adviser added, “The list of why we ‘could’ win is so small I don’t even need to keep the list on my phone.”
Ouch.
I suspect the first thing on that list is abortion. Democrats have made no secret that they plan to exploit the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, yet polls show abortion just isn’t a top issue for voters this year.
It goes without saying that there’s still plenty of time for Democrats to turn things around, but so far, nothing has worked. The best opportunity Biden had to reset his campaign was his State of the Union address, and that failed miserably. Meanwhile, some experts predict a recession before the fall and if that happens, it’s hard to see how Biden can recover. As it stands, the polls have moved only slightly over the last several months, typically within the margin of error. I suspect the vast majority of those who intend to vote have made up their minds, and it would take a flawless campaign for Biden's team to pull off a victory.
And I don’t think they have it in them.
