The Left Is Panicking Over Biden and I'll Pop the Corn

"Panic is entirely warranted," Roosevelt University's David Faris warned in Slate on Tuesday. "This might be the worst polling environment for an incumbent president one year out from an election since the advent of the polling era," according to Faris, "and also the most dire situation facing any Democratic presidential candidate in decades."

When the lefty author of "It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics" says it's time for Democrats to panic, then it's time for Democrats to panic. Presidentish Joe Biden's reelection chances are shuffling aimlessly around like Joe at the end of a speech.

Thus, the panic.

The Guardian tried a more positive tack this week, with an encouraging report about "how the Biden campaign hopes to energize Black voters." Rita Omokha admitted there's a "perception" that Biden is "taking African Americans for granted as well as growing cynicism with the lack of progress on issues such as affordable housing, healthcare costs and student loan debt."

Democrats scrambling for black voters is like Donald Trump worrying about how middle-aged guys with red MAGA hats they bought in 2015 are going to vote.

Thus, the real panic.

Last night, my Hot Air colleague Ed Morrissey couldn't help but notice that the leftstream media has suddenly realized that Biden is "old, unpopular, and corrupt." Biden has never been particularly popular, he's always been corrupt, and age catches up with all of us. But there's no longer denying any of it, particularly the age thing. The media swept Biden's senescence under the rug in 2020, but now that he's suffered the rigors of the Oval Office and the additional rigors of a reelection campaign, even they must come to grips with Biden's increasing un-electability.

Or, as Ed concluded, "The Democrat-progressive establishment is clearly sending a message to the Bidens: Get. Out."

But during our twice-weekly "Five O'Clock Somewhere" live chat (available exclusively to the Best People in the World™, our VIP Gold members), Stephen Kruiser and I have said time and again that there's no way for the Democrats to ditch Biden. If they get desperate enough, there's always the 25th Amendment — but that's no good, either. Acting President Kamala Harris would win maybe eight states in November, but they can't dump her, either. Being the First Charisma-Deficient Woman of Color vice president, the Dems' intersectional politics make her untouchable.

Thus, the seriously real panic.

The best-case scenario for Dems is that Biden — for the good of the country, you see — steps aside at the Democratic National Convention this summer and graciously allows his replacement to be selected by the will of the people. And by "will of the people," I mean a handful of Democrat bigwigs will secretly meet in a vape-filled room and pick California Gov. Gavin Newsom or some other deep blue state governor.

But that's a fantasy and, besides, as Joel Kotkin just wrote, "Joe Biden’s Democrat rivals are even worse than him." Kotkin noted that the "other Democratic candidates, usually from the gubernatorial class, have economic records that do not even measure up to Biden’s."

Thus, the quite seriously real panic.

And yet, according to New York Magazine, the Biden campaign is possessed of an "alarming calm."

One week after Democrats’ near sweep of the November 7 elections, I checked in with Biden’s campaign advisers in Wilmington, Delaware. “It seems like the only thing people want to pay attention to is the polls and not the work,” said Quentin Fulks, Chávez Rodríguez’s principal deputy. “That’s why we keep turning people toward ‘Look how people are turning out to vote.’”

If everyone on the left is panicked except for Team Biden, are they just that clueless — or do they know something that nobody else does?