Forget Joe Biden's abysmal approval ratings. Forget the national matchup polls showing him losing to Trump, or the battleground state polls that also show him losing to Trump. Heck, even the polls showing Biden bleeding support from traditionally Democratic-voting demographics can be ignored at this point. The Biden campaign has much bigger problems than that. Heck, this problem might be the foundation of the failing campaign.
By now, you're aware that many in the Democratic Party are growing concerned about Joe Biden's chances in November. Words like "panic" and "freaked out" have been used. And the problem is that the campaign is banking on a strategy that isn't working, but they aren't willing to acknowledge it. The campaign believes that leaning heavily on January 6th, democracy, and Trump's character is the ticket to four more years of propping Joe Biden up like a puppet. But, voters simply aren't buying those horse apples. They care about inflation, the economy, immigration, and things that are real and impact their families.
"It is unclear to many of us watching from the outside whether the president and his core team realize how dire the situation is right now, and whether they even have a plan to fix it," a Democratic strategist close to the campaign told Axios. "That is scary."
At the root of the problem is the fact that Biden's inner circle is a delusional clown show of yes men who can't recommend a course change even if they want to.
People close to Joe Biden revealed to Axios that there's a reluctance to express concerns during meetings "because Biden's group of longtime loyal aides can exile dissenters." One insider noted that even those near the core of the team hesitate to voice doubts about the current strategy, fearing accusations of disloyalty. "There is not a discussion that a change of course is needed."
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As Axios notes, despite having a year-long head start, a larger campaign team, and spending more than twice as much as Trump's team on ads since early March, Biden's polling numbers against Trump have remained largely unchanged over the past few months. Not even Trump's conviction in New York City was able to get Biden to pull ahead. Biden's approval ratings have also hit an all-time low.
Meanwhile, longtime Biden aide Mike Donilon appears to just believe that voters will "do the right thing" in November by rejecting Trump.
Donilon, a veteran Democratic operative who has collaborated with Biden since 1981, has also been heard to say that "Joe Biden is a great president, and great presidents get re-elected."
I'm guessing he exclusively watches MSNBC.
It should come as no surprise that Donilon believes that polls do not accurately capture public worries about democracy. But, polls have shown that while voters are concerned about democracy, there's a partisan divide over which candidate is the bigger threat. My vote is for the candidate who is weaponizing the Department of Justice against his opponent, by the way. Meanwhile, the verdict in the New York City Trump trial failed to boost Biden in the polls, which suggests that voters really care more about the kitchen table issues than left-wing fearmongering about the end of the democracy or January 6.
"If the election were today, we would lose," longtime Democratic strategist Howard Wolfson told Axios. "Can that change? Yes. Is it on the path to do so? I don't see that yet."
It will be interesting to see if the Biden campaign's reliance on yes men continues.
