Team Obama's not-so-secret effort to kick Presidentish Joe Biden to the curb started so innocently with a John Della Volpe op-ed in Monday's New York Times headlined "Biden Is in Trouble."
You might not have heard of Volpe, but in political circles, he's kind of a big deal. He served as a pollster for Biden's 2020 campaign and, more importantly, is the director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School and has run its youth poll for more than 20 years. If there's anybody who knows how to groom and track young Democrats, he's the guy.
His column is a long one — over 1,500 words — but these 66 are the words that count:
Many young voters have been reluctant to back Mr. Biden for some time now, despite record-setting levels of support from Gen Zers and millennials in 2020. The latest battleground state polls by The New York Times and Siena College show Mr. Biden holding a one-point lead over Mr. Trump among registered voters under 30 and a six-point lead among likely voters in the same age category.
A Democrat can't win with those youth numbers.
These battleground state numbers tell the story:
The New York Times published those results just one day before Volpe's column.
Vople tries to thread the needle by encouraging Biden to provide "bold leadership that prioritizes caring for the most vulnerable, including making real progress toward a state of Palestine side by side with a strong, democratic Israel."
Uh-huh. Biden is going to create Middle East peace — including a two-state solution — in time to make a difference in an election just 12 months away. Diplomacy in far-off lands will somehow win back youth voters who have seen their prospects decline for the last three years. Easy-peasy... not.
Left unsaid: The untold thousands of young Democrats who are explicitly pro-Hamas.
Enter David Axelrod, the Chicago journalist-turned-pol who helped launch Barack Obama from obscurity to the White House. He then served as Obama's senior advisor before switching gears again and helping Obama cream Mitt Romney in his 2012 reelection. He's been a CNN senior political commentator since 2015 and reportedly remains close with the Obamas.
It's safe to say that Axelrod remains the unofficial voice of the Obama camp.
Axelrod did not wait until Monday's official publication date to add his — Obama's — two bits to Volpe's stark warning. He did not take the time to pen an op-ed of his own. Instead, Axelrod took to Twitter which, despite its recent "troubles" with free speech for conservatives, remains the Left's go-to Buzz Generation Machine.
Biden has "defied CW [conventional wisdom] before," Axelrod tweeted, but Volpe's numbers "will send tremors of doubt through the party — not 'bed-wetting,' but legitimate concern."
Translation: "We aren't panicking over one bad poll; we see you taking us all down with you."
"The greatest concern is that his biggest liability is the one thing he can't change," because Biden isn't getting any younger. "Among all the unpredictables there is one thing that is sure: the age arrow only points in one direction."
Translation: "President Kamala Harris" polls even worse than Biden does.
Here's where Axelrod slips in the shiv: "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?"
Translation: "Country" in this context means "Democrat party."
"There is little time left for a primary campaign," Axelrod concluded, "and campaigns are how we test candidates. But there is a lot of leadership talent in the Democratic Party, poised to emerge."
Translation: Step aside now, old man, and make way for Gavin Newsom.
But the fact is, as analyst Jay Cost noted with dripping sarcasm Sunday on Twitter, "I'm sure that Biden — long known for his humility and lack of ambition — will graciously step aside and consign himself to the history books as a one-term president."
Indeed. It's up to us voters to do that for him.
Recommended: Biden & Harris Playing Footsie with Hamas to Protect His Lead in This State.
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