The calendar says summer is ending, vacations are over and it’s time to get back to work. If you’re a Democrat, it’s also time to get serious about dumping Joe Biden as your 2024 nominee.
It’s been eons since the president has enjoyed even decent poll numbers, but amid a glut of bad ones, last week’s Wall Street Journal survey stands out.
With only minor exceptions, it shows Biden and his policies, especially on inflation and the economy, are wildly unpopular and that the vast majority of all registered voters do not want him to seek re-election.
Instead, they want him to turn out the lights and take a permanent vacation.
Meanwhile, a Journal survey of just Republican voters paints such a rosy picture of Donald Trump’s support that he appears to be on an unstoppable march to the nomination.
The former president now holds a 46-point lead over runner-up Ron DeSantis, with the Florida governor’s backing at just 13%, continuing its months-long decline.
But it is among the larger group of registered voters from both parties and independents where the Journal poll has the worst-possible news for Biden and Democrats.
The top finding is that an astounding 73% of all respondents believe Biden, at 80 and in obvious decline, is too old to run for a second term.
Remarkably, that number includes two-thirds of Dems, the Journal says.
The contrast between the leading contenders for the Oval Office is striking.
Less than three years after Biden took the White House from Trump, the winner is in something of a free fall and the loser is on a roll.
Terrifying for Dems
Although the poll has them tied at 46% in a head-to-head matchup, a subset of responses is more revealing and should terrify Dems.
Asked about both men’s presidential accomplishments, visions for the future and being mentally fit for the job, Trump scores better, sometimes by significant margins. Biden comes out ahead only on which man is more likable and more honest.
In one of the great oddities of our polarized era, Trump continues to benefit from the four criminal indictments brought by Democratic prosecutors.
As the Journal put it, “More than 60% of Republican primary voters said each [prosecution] was politically motivated and without merit.
Some 78% said Trump’s actions after the 2020 election were legitimate efforts to ensure an accurate vote, while 16% said Trump had illegally tried to block Congress from certifying an election he had lost.”
It adds that 48% of GOP respondents said the indictments “made them more likely to vote for Trump in 2024” while just 16% said the charges made them less likely to back him in a general election.
Those answers and others put the lie to the assumption among Trump’s GOP rivals that a large portion of his support is soft and can be peeled away.
The pollsters found that “some 76% of Trump supporters say that they are committed to him and won’t change their minds. By contrast, 25% of DeSantis voters say their minds are made up.”
For the White House, the trend suggests it should expect growing pressure for the president to pull the plug on his re-election effort.
Two additional negative factors also have to be considered.
Because Vice President Kamala Harris is not seen by anyone as a capable president-in-waiting, a Biden-Harris ticket becomes an increasingly harder sell as the president sinks. Even in the weird math of politics, adding two negatives doesn’t yield a positive.
In a vacation conversation with several staunch Dems, I was surprised at how vehement most were that Harris is unfit to be president if Biden should be unable to finish a second term.
Such worries, if they become widespread, could become a factor in the election given Biden’s age and his many mumbles and stumbles.
Influence-peddling
Another bleak factor is that much of the remainder of this year is almost certain to include more revelations about the Biden family influence-peddling schemes.
Because the administration and its weaponized vassals in the Department of Justice are refusing to turn over key documents, including the thousands of emails where Joe Biden used pseudonyms as vice president, a formal impeachment inquiry is probable.
Although there are political risks if the public tires of the topic and sees it as just payback for the two Trump impeachments, a formal process has clear advantages over committee probes. One is that legal demands can move more directly to a court instead of being tied up endlessly by partisan Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Although there is already plenty of circumstantial evidence that Joe used his public office to further the corrupt schemes, definitive proof that the “big guy” got a cut would be a game changer — provided voters know.
In that context, the Journal poll found a significant gap in public awareness of Biden’s legal troubles versus Trump’s. “Eighty-three percent of voters said they were paying attention to Trump’s legal issues, while 66% said the same of Hunter Biden,” the outlet said.
More than anything else, the gap reflects media corruption in the way the two men have been covered over the last eight years. Trump was “convicted” by the media in the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax long before he was legally cleared.
On the other hand, media protection of the Biden family grift began when The Post’s initial laptop stories in 2020 were censored by Big Tech and largely ignored by Big Media.
There are hopeful signs the protection racket is nearing the end of its sordid life. Just as the Journal poll was grabbing headlines, a Biden biographer declared it would not be a “total shock” to him if the president announced he won’t seek a second term.
Seeking alternative?
The fact that Franklin Foer, a Democratic apologist granted wide access to the White House, gave the answer is only slightly more noteworthy than the fact that it was NBC’s Chuck Todd who asked the question. If the anti-Trump, lickspittle Todd is looking for an alternative to the president, as his question suggests, it could mean he doubts Biden can defeat Trump.
If that starts a trend, all that remains is for Biden to pull the plug on his campaign and the media to anoint his replacement.
Migrant budget tricks
Reader John Frenett has good questions about the freebies handed out to asylum-seekers. He writes: “How exactly is New York funding various entitlements for non-citizens? Unlike the federal government, the state cannot run a deficit.
“So is funding from previously approved budget line items being redirected for these entitlements? For example, could Thruway maintenance dollars be used to pay for non-citizen housing and health care?”
‘ACL-lose’ in trouble
Reader Anita Mule is on the lookout for good news, writing: “I’ve been noticing that the ACLU has been airing commercials and I wonder if that means they are losing membership and are in trouble.
“I sincerely hope so.”
