Democrats spent the past few months mocking those who looked at Biden’s poll numbers and suggested he should drop out as ‘bedwetters’. There’s now a prominent new bedwetter joining the ranks.
Former President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod said it’s the last moment for President Biden to check if he should drop out of the 2024 presidential race, after suggesting he should do so.
On Sunday, Axelrod, in the wake of a new poll showing Biden trailing former President Trump in key swing states, said Biden needs to decide if it’s wise to continue his run. The poll found Biden trailing Trump in five out of six battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
“As I’ve said for like a couple years now, the issue’s not — for him is not political, its actuarial. You can see that in this poll and there’s just a lot of concern about the age issue, and that is something I think he needs to ponder. Just do a check and say, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’” Axelrod said.
“Is this the best path? I suspect that he will say yes, but time is fleeting here, and this is probably the last moment for him to do that check, and it’s probably good if he does,” the Obama alum added.
What’s also significant is that during a foreign crisis, presidential poll numbers usually go up. (Then they drop back down afterward.) That does not seem to be happening here.
No one really wants Biden. Most think he’s too old. And life in general is miserable. That’s what people who fixate too much on political issues don’t entirely understand. When life is bad, much of the electorate, which isn’t Dem or GOP, turns against whoever is in the White House. And it takes hard work for an incumbent to survive that.
And life is really, really bad now. Maybe not quite as bad as 2020, but a good deal worse than 2012. And Biden is no Obama.
Running an unpopular incumbent is just a death wish. Most Dems know it. And with Trump in ascendance, they’re much more likely to want to dump Biden and bet on a fresh new candidate. And that would be a good bet. Much better than sticking with the old nag.
So Sen. Fetterman just took a shot at Gov. Newsom for running a shadow campaign.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Saturday evening criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom and accused him of secretly running for president while speaking at an Iowa Democratic Party dinner, even though Newsom has said he fully supports Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
“There are two additional Democrats running for Pennsylvania, excuse me, running for president right now,” said Fetterman, who acknowledged that he still has lingering speech issues after he had a stroke in 2022. “One is a congressman from Minnesota, the other one is the governor of California, but only one has the guts to announce it.”
Fetterman was sent out on the campaign trail to rally support among Democrats for Biden. Taking the shot at Newsom is significant. It could be the first shot in a political civil war. There’s been a lot of resentment of Newsom in the Biden camp and now they’re getting edgy enough. Newsom’s approach has been that he’s not going to run against Biden, he’ll just wait and jump in if he drops out. Some of Biden’s people think that is a cowardly attempt to avoid a primary challenge and instead wait in the wings as the party’s savior.
Sending Fetterman, who’s unfit for office, to attack Biden, who’s unfit for office, was probably not the best move. But it also hints at the Biden campaign’s strategy against Newsom, paint him as an elitist who can’t connect with working-class people. While Biden did a bit better with working-class whites than Hillary or Obama (he could hardly have done worse), there’s really not much evidence that their fake working-class routines work.
The Democrats have the same problem that they did before. They would rather Biden not run, but they have no good way of ousting him. Expecting Biden to do what’s best for the party is not terribly realistic. And the DNC already rigged the primaries for him. If Biden doesn’t leave on his own, expect an ugly civil war to play out.
Axelrod’s comments are aimed more at the party than at Biden, but he also seems to be resigned to being stuck with him. That’s been the overall tone in the party. Axelrod is telling Democrats that it may be their last chance.
But the DNC has gone far down the road with Biden. His loyalists are encamped inside. It took a lot for Obama to pry Hillary out. Biden is no Hillary, but is Newsom is also no Obama. History may repeat itself as farce.
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