I've noted many times before that the Biden campaign was counting on his State of the Union address to reset the campaign and boost Biden in the polls. For a brief moment, it caused a small tightening in the polls, and that's it. The bump was small and brief, and now you can barely see it in the rearview mirror.
Meanwhile, polls continue to show Trump up nationally and in nearly all of the battleground states. Recent reports suggest that Democrats are in "full-blown freakout" mode, and whispers of replacing Biden on the ballot persist. And Democrats are open to the idea.
According to a new Rasmussen Reports survey, 54% of likely Democrat voters would approve of replacing Biden on the ballot. This idea is very unlikely at this point since Biden has clinched the nomination and would have to voluntarily step aside to give Democrats a chance to replace him, which is unlikely. It is nevertheless a devastating vote of no confidence for Joe Biden.
So the State of the Union failed to reset Biden's campaign. That's hardly the only thing the campaign has tried to regain momentum, and nothing else he has tried has worked.
After months of being noncommittal about debating Trump, Biden challenged him to a debate a couple of weeks ago with terms that were designed to give Biden as many advantages as possible. Despite this, once Trump accepted the terms, rumors suggest that Biden is quietly trying to find a way to back out.
Related: It's Red Alert for Joe Biden in Minnesota
This week, he sent Robert DeNiro to Manhattan to troll Trump outside the courthouse, where Trump is on trial for a non-crime. It was a deviation from his past strategy of trying to distance himself from the trial.
These are all desperate acts by a campaign that is struggling to find a message that resonates with voters. Biden's situation is so bad that he's ramping up efforts to reach out to black voters in Pennsylvania. He's fighting to hold onto black support, complete with his usual racially divisive rhetoric.
Despite everything Team Biden has tried, Trump's chances of winning in November have surged to their highest levels. As Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner reports, Sports Handle, which aggregates political betting odds, reports that Trump has a 57.2% chance of winning the November election. Meanwhile, Biden's reelection odds have dropped to 40.9%, down from 47.1% at the end of April, widening the gap from 1 point to 16.3 points in a month.
And to pour salt on Biden's wounds, both Biden's failed presidency and the unprecedented trial Trump is facing are fueling this boost as the Democrats' lawfare strategy against him is backfiring.
So the question is, what opportunities does the Biden campaign have to reset the campaign at this point? Even if Trump is found guilty, polls have suggested that Americans won't be swayed much either way. And, even if Trump's trial moves the needle slightly, the trial of Hunter Biden is set to start next week, and it could sway public sentiment away from Biden.
Biden is running out of opportunities to reset his campaign, and it seems like any opportunity he gets won't succeed.
