Mostly behind the scenes, Democrats continue to be concerned -- despondent, resigned, angry, panicked -- about the oldest president in history who will not be deterred from running again in spite of Americans' belief that he is too old to serve another term in the White House.
Speaking in New York at a fund raising event for three Democratic Senate candidates -- Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, and his own California bid -- Representative Adam Schiff warned that Joe Biden's name at the top of the ticket threatened Democratic prospects to retain the White House and the Senate majority, as well as retaking the House majority.
I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose. And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.
Biden and the Biden campaign have closed the door to voices of pollsters and political professionals who present an extraordinarily dire picture of public opinion regarding the president and of his realistic prospects of success. Reports suggest the president is "increasingly isolated" and only willing to listen to "a small number of aides who are limiting the data he receives," which is consistent with his strategy of running out the clock to stay in place atop the ticket.
Adam Schiff is a close ally of Nancy Pelosi, who continues to advise worried Democrats. Last week on "Morning Joe" (which the president watches) she nudged him, after he sent his defiant letter to Congressional Democrats: "It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short."
Journalists, as they did in 2020, continue to look at Ben Cramer's What It Takes: The Way to the White House to explain why Biden is unlikely to budge. Cramer suggested that for Biden, every obstacle was "malleable to his will."
“There was (to be perfectly blunt, as Joe would say) a breathtaking element of balls,” Cramer writes. “Joe Biden had balls. Lots of times, more balls than sense. This was from the jump—as a little kid. He was little, too, but you didn’t want to fight him—or dare him. There was nothing he wouldn’t do.”
President Biden is highly unpopular. Americans overwhelmingly believe he is too old to continue in office another four years. In the past two weeks the evidence for their doubts has increased. Outside Biden's inner circle, it is clear that Biden is well behind Donald Trump. Schiff sums up: "Joe Biden’s running against a criminal. It should not be even close. And there is only one reason it is close and that’s the president’s age."
A reset at the top of the ticket would at once provide a fresh boost for Democrats and eliminate the major, persistent doubts that weigh down their nominee for president.
I won't concede that Biden is a sure loser. Trump can't help being Trump. And J.D. Vance, who has let his overweening ambition shape his public persona, only compounds the Trumpiness of the MAGA Republican Party. The campaigns are just beginning.
In the words of Mark Shields, "A week is a lifetime politically, and three months is an eternity."
There are not quite four months to go.
But what a deep hole Democrats are in with the candidacy of Joe Biden. Americans' doubts of Biden's fitness will persist. I trust Nancy Pelosi's judgment far more than that of Joe Biden, his family, and his inner circle of loyalists. And, unless the man has a change of heart that his ego and character haven't revealed is likely, he will be the Democratic Party's nominee to take on Trump.
What a perilous time.