It’s something that’s probably brought up a lot within Democratic Party circles. It’s especially prevalent among younger voter blocs, too. Joe Biden shouldn’t be running for re-election. It’s the neglected sub-plot of the 2024 election. You don’t get a near-unanimous consensus—86 percent of the WaPo/ABC News poll—of Americans who feel the Delaware liberal is too old to run again for president without a lot of Democrats agreeing with the premise.
James Carville, one of the chief architects of Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 campaign, admits that he didn’t want Biden to run for re-election, noting that there were other candidates to fit the times (via NY Post):
Veteran top Democratic consultant James Carville says he wishes President Biden wasn’t running for re-election and worries that disenchanted young party voters will sit out the November election because of it.
“It isn’t the choice I was crazy about,” admitted Carville, who played a major role in getting former President Clinton first elected in 1992, on 77 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable” on Sunday.
“I thought that President Biden should not run for re-election,” the political guru said. “But he did — it’s him and Trump — and that’s where I am.”
Carville argued that the Democrats have a deep bench of younger elected officials who would be a better fit for the times than the 81-year-old Biden, including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn.
As a loyal soldier, Carville also said he’s voting for Biden, but the enthusiasm isn’t there among the liberal base for Biden to win. The 2024 race will be a base election, and Biden has serious issues among core liberal groups. Based on early polling data, Black and Latino voters are drifting into the Trump camp—Hispanics especially.
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You can also feel the lack of excitement with Carville. He didn’t want Biden, but he’s going to back him because, as a longtime liberal operative, he’s duty-bound. That sentiment will not be replicated across the board. Liberal voters who have that ‘aw, shucks, it’s Biden’ attitude will simply stay home.
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