Biden’s Poor Polling May Be as Good as It Gets for Him

Although it hardly looks like it, President Joe Biden may already be peaking in his race to keep the White House. His biggest internal threat remains: his inability to campaign effectively. And his biggest external threat looms: Though the country seems to expect a soft landing from inflation’s heights, this week’s economic data prove Biden’s economy has nowhere to go but down.

When Biden survived his State of the Union speech, Democrats cheered their president reaching the starting line as though he had crossed the finish line. But his challenge over the next seven months will be far greater. The campaign trail will be demanding for Biden, with many speeches before real audiences, press conferences (if he agrees to them), and debates (if he accepts). Biden will have to do these and more — and do them over and over again. And at the first mistake, the questions that Democrats insist have been laid to rest will come flooding back.

All these questions will come in environments where Biden is weakest and has failed to perform throughout his career. That’s why Biden’s people have kept him out of sight as much as possible for nearly five years. Remember: as soon as Biden clinched the Democratic nomination in 2020, he retired to his basement. And throughout his first term, he has avoided the press except for all but the simplest, friendliest, and heavily controlled of settings — as his March 2021 ESPN interview was recently revealed to be.

Politically, though, Biden has no choice but to go out. Unlike in 2020, when Biden held sizable leads and events were largely playing his way and he could play it safe, now he must make up ground. As of April 11, he trails (by almost 3 percentage points overall and in every state but Pennsylvania) in the all-important battleground states that will decide the Electoral College vote; he trails by almost 2 percentage points in the five-way race that this election will likely be; and even in a head-to-head rematch with former President Donald Trump, he is slightly behind.

But even if he agrees to start campaigning, Biden’s biggest liability will be one he can’t control: the economic uncertainty that his own policies have created. (Read more from “Biden’s Poor Polling May Be as Good as It Gets for Him” HERE)