Joe Biden appears less confident about his chances of winning re-election. Politicians and donors to the Democratic Party are starting to panic.
Biden’s team originally planned to make a reelection announcement in February. But that was delayed by multiple crises.
Joe Biden is a weak candidate heading into 2024. pic.twitter.com/XwJUzn7FlA
— GOP (@GOP) February 20, 2023
POLITICO is out this morning with a look into what’s going on behind the scenes here, and it’s a pretty interesting story.
Most in Biden’s orbit believe that he will give the all-clear. Biden’s indecisiveness caused an awkward deep freeze within the party. Potential presidential candidates and major donors are now strategizing, and even creating a Plan B. The 80-year-old president is being publicly supported and respected.
Democratic governors. Gavin Newsom, Phil Murphy, and JB Pritzker from New Jersey took actions that could be read as being intended to keep Biden out. They have enough ambiguity to be able to deny it.
As we’ve discussed before, Newsom has openly stated he isn’t running… if Joe Biden is. None of these other names would dare to openly challenge Biden, but each of them knows that this may be their best opportunity should Biden decide not to run for re-election.
People in direct contact with Washington described him as a Hamlet living on Delaware’s Christina River waiting for his turn, while he contemplates his final campaign details.
“An inertia has set in,” one Biden confidant said. “It’s not that he won’t run, and the assumption is that he will. But nothing is decided. And it won’t be decided until it is.”
Biden’s greatest challenge is his stamina. Biden nearly died during the long flight from the United States to Ukraine. The White House is also constantly walking back the gaffes and off-the-cuff comments that he makes in public.
He ran for the election in 2020 from his basement. The other issues remain and have only gotten worse.
The biggest problem for Democrats, if Biden doesn’t run, is the bench. Newsom is like Bernie Sanders, but with better hair.
Hair can look better or worse depending on how you see it.
Another name that keeps popping up is Sanders. Sanders appeals to the same far-left voters as Newsom but his appeal to moderates is lower than Newsom’s.
Amy Klobuchar may have a chance, but her last run for the presidency was disappointing.
Next, there’s Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris. Both want another chance at the throne, but it is obvious that they are among the least popular politicians in the country.
Biden, the only candidate who could combine the left and the middle, was nominated for the 2020 nomination. This, combined with Trump’s Burnout, made it an ideal time for Biden’s rise to the presidency. But, we all see how that turned out.
