Time is the most precious resource in politics. It’s a balancing act, as too much time can give one’s enemies opportunities while squandering it could end up with a political hopeful or incumbent suffering defeat on Election Day. With Joe Biden, he was confident, for some reason, that Donald Trump would be the more beatable GOP candidate in 2024, given his political baggage and unpopularity. Biden failed to realize that voters aren’t high on him either.
Bidenomics isn’t selling because the rate of inflation remains high. The economy's fundamentals are shaky, with a looming commercial real estate crisis, among other things, looking to rip the rug out of millions of Americans if things don’t start to turn around. Instead, Biden dithers on natural disaster response, can’t work two days without going on vacation, and sends billions overseas to Ukraine, a proxy war with Russia whose patience with the American people is beginning to degrade quickly. I, too, thought Trump’s baggage would be too much, but the latest trove of evidence in the emerging Biden bribery scandal has changed the landscape. As I said, too much time can be a blessing and a curse.
Even CNN said that everyone needs to drop the narrative that Trump can’t win in 2024 should he re-clinch the GOP nomination. Biden’s approvals are poor, with an overwhelming number of Americans feeling that we’re no longer on the right track. Biden’s recent trip to Maui to survey the damage done by the devastating wildfires was also marred by avoidable awkwardness. Over 100 people were killed in the blaze, the worst in over a century. And while Biden should have visited the island, he did so nearly two weeks after the disaster, fitting two vacations in between. He fell asleep at a memorial event and gave a heinous story about how he could relate to this devastated community because he had survived a small kitchen fire 15 years ago.
Concerning non-white male voters, a key voting bloc for Democrats, they’re souring on Joe Biden. These gentlemen aren’t flocking to the GOP, but they could stay home if things continue to deteriorate. There’s also an overall frustration that both parties are woefully inadequate in helping the American people. This sentiment allowed Trump to pull off one of the biggest political upsets in American history. The list of words offered to describe the president in a recent focus group was alarming (via Politico):
There are troubling signs for President Joe Biden and the Democrats as the 2024 presidential and federal campaign cycle accelerates, particularly when it comes to men of color.
“Discouraged,” “pathetic” and “pessimistic” were some of the words offered by a focus group of men — all of whom voted for Biden in 2020 — when asked to fill in the blank for the sentence: “I feel ___ about how things are going in the country.”
“Not a lot of good words on this list,” said Terrance Woodbury, the chief executive officer and founding partner of HIT Strategies, a liberal-leaning public polling firm that facilitated the group. Woodbury’s organization specializes in reaching marginalized voters — who were key to Democrats sweeping both the presidency and both chambers of Congress following the 2020 election.
This group of disillusioned Biden voters, surveyed during a two-hour session conducted virtually last week, discussed a range of topics, from voting rights, to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, to border security and the legal challenges facing former President Donald Trump.
Chief among this group’s concerns, though, above anything else, was the economy.
[…]
“Our economy is the lowest it’s been in god knows how long,” said a Hispanic respondent who lives in New Jersey. “We keep [sending] money to Ukraine and other countries rather than helping ourselves. I think those are plenty for me.”
[…]
We don’t know what’s going to happen,” said the respondent, who identifies as Asian American and Pacific Islander. “They’re kind of like saying that there possibly is going to be a soft landing, but they’re also expecting a recession of some sorts.”
At one point the group was asked whether Republicans or Democrats were better at handling the economy, crime and migrants at the border. They gave Democrats a failing grade across the board. On the issue of crime, it was split evenly among those who favored Republicans and those who said neither party handled the issue well.
“I don’t feel like Democrats really have my back … or Republicans, you know?” said one respondent from Los Angeles, who identifies as Black and Latino. “I think as a president, you only have so much power. I mean, unless you’re someone like Trump to where he just — he really didn’t care. He did what he wanted to do.”
This respondent spoke highly of the Trump-era economy, citing the cryptocurrency boom under the former president. He said he considers himself “middle of the road” politically and talked about why he’s soured on Biden.
[…]
One of the respondents, a Black man who lives in Cleveland, expressed disdain for Trump and described the Republican Party as rich, elitist and self-serving.
“I don’t think it makes any difference. … The economy seems to be fried, no matter who’s in office,” he said. He also said he was frustrated by Congress’ inability to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, aimed at rooting out racial bias and curbing the use of force by law enforcement.
And while the Cleveland man said it’s a given he won’t be voting for Trump — or any other Republican candidate who might win the GOP nomination — at this point he doesn’t know if he’ll be casting his vote for Biden.
And, of course, none of these guys felt Bidenomics was a workable policy. Democratic pollsters are less bearish since Trump at the top of the ticket has been the fuel to juice up liberal voters in the past. They also point out that Obama was in similar electoral waters in 2011, going on to handily beat Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. There’s a problem: Biden isn’t Obama. Also, we’ve been here before regarding political coalitions and transferability. It doesn’t happen. Hillary found that out the hard way.
Trump and Biden could be in a rematch, while one faces trials and the other is hauled into impeachment hearings.