By Dave Andrusko
Photo: Gage Skidmore
At a certain point—and I am guessing it will happened by the end of the year—the media consensus will move from protecting pro-abortion President Joe Biden at all costs to writing 4 alarm fires-like stories signaling deep dismay.
How many times can the Associated Press’s Calvin Woodward and Emily Swanson write stories under such headline as “Biden is widely seen as too old for office, an AP-NORC poll finds” before the unease with Biden—who turns 80 in November —moves from dread to sheer panic?
To “balance” they write that former President Trump “has problems of his own.” The first paragraph read:
Americans actually agree on something in this time of raw discord: Joe Biden is too old to be an effective president in a second term. Only a few years his junior, Donald Trump raises strikingly less concern about his age.
Here are some representative quotes from their story:
In the poll, fully 77% said Biden is too old to be effective for four more years. Not only do 89% of Republicans say that, so do 69% of Democrats. That view is held across age groups, not just by young people, though older Democrats specifically are more supportive of his 2024 bid.
What else?
Older Democrats are less negative than younger ones on Biden’s decision to run again. In the poll, only 34% of Democrats under 45 want him running for reelection, compared with 54% of those older. Still, about three-quarters of younger Democrats say they’ll at least probably support him if he’s the nominee; others did not commit to that.
You would think that is as close to a consensus as we will ever get. But remarkably it gets worse.
The survey, Woodward and Swanson continue, also “had a word association exercise, asking people to offer the first word or phrase that comes to mind at the mention of each man.”
In those visceral responses, 26% mentioned Biden’s age and an additional 15% used words such as ”slow” or ”confused.” One Republican thought of ”potato.” Among Democrats, Biden’s age was mentioned upfront by 28%. They preferred such terms over ”president,” ”leader,” ”strong” or ”capable.” One who approves of his performance nevertheless called him ”senile.”
On a different front, Jazz Shaw, writing for HotAir, observed
Meanwhile, Gallup finds that Biden’s approval remains in the toilet on pretty much everything. He’s stuck at 42% for overall approval and below 40 in four of the top categories, including his handling of the economy and immigration. This has already turned into another one of those problems that may simply be too big for people to wrap their heads around or propose any sort of feasible plan.
One other reality hitting President Biden very hard. Steve Cortes writes
Biden finds a new and worsening problem headed into election year: hemorrhaging support among Hispanics, and especially among working-class Latino voters.
Per the latest NY Times/Sienna poll, his general election lead among non-college educated minorities has collapsed. Back in 2020, Biden captured a blowout 48% winning margin among blue-collar minorities, but that lead has plummeted to only 16% right now, asking voters their preference for 2024. For further context, consider that Obama won that demographic of working-class non-whites by a landslide 67% in 2012.
At some point, even Biden’s strongest supporters will have to answer the question: Who thinks President Biden has a second term in him?