James Antle of the Washington Examiner looks into Democrats’ approach toward President Biden’s prospects for winning re-election.
Democrats have two choices about how to approach the 2024 presidential election: panic or patience.
Former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in five of six battleground states, according to the latest New York Times-Siena College poll. Trump leads in all seven in the RealClearPolitics polling average, which also has him ahead of Biden nationally.
If Trump’s national lead holds, it would only be the second time since 1988 that Republicans have won the popular vote. This time, that feat could conceivably be achieved by a former president who was voted out of office four years ago who is still viewed unfavorably by an absolute majority of voters in most polls.
The fact that the race is not only competitive but that Biden is losing, and has been losing in many polls for a while now, has to give Democrats pause. Trump is running ahead of Republican Senate candidates in swing states like Nevada and Arizona.
New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait, a bellwether for liberal pundit panic about Biden’s chances, is back to laying the blame at the feet of the president and his reelection campaign. “The point here is that Democrats have a Joe Biden problem, not a partywide problem,” he writes. “Regular, mainstream Democratic candidates are holding up just fine in the purple states.”
This is where you begin to hear talk about whether Democrats should replace the 81-year-old Biden as the nominee.
There is a case for this being crazy talk, however. Trump’s leads are not big, at least not in most places, and by historical standards should not be insurmountable. Trump is up by 1.2 points nationally. The RealClearPolitics average shows him ahead by just 0.6 points in Wisconsin.
