REUTERS
After a Thursday that started with Joe Biden announcing Vladimir Putin as the president of Ukraine and ended with the cognitively challenged prez having referred to “Vice President Donald Trump,” it’s clear that only a shrinking contingent of Democrats are willing to give Biden four more years.
Or even four more months.
From congressional and senatorial defections to reports that formidable party elders like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi have deep concerns, it’s clear the Delaware Democrat’s final campaign may be an abridged one.
What’s also clear is the paradoxical truth that Republicans, from Donald Trump on down, stand to benefit the most from Biden staying in the race — as someone in Trump’s own inner circle confirmed to The Post Friday.
Biden adherents cling to polls suggesting the reputational damage to the president from last month’s Atlanta debate is now baked into the cake.
The latest poll, a Marist survey released Friday, indicates Biden would get 50% against 48% for Trump nationally in a head-to-head, with Biden’s lead down to 1 point when marginal candidates are added to the equation.
That sounds like bad news on its face for Trump and Republicans.
But really, it’s not.
Every piece of data, every supportive “Ridin’ with Biden” social-media post, every delusional quotation from elected leaders and party hacks that tells people to ignore what they see and hear and focus on some sepia-tinged “legacy” for the president keeps the weakest Democratic candidate for re-election since Lyndon Johnson on the ticket.
The worries of George Clooney, Michael Stipe and other celebrities? They can safely be dismissed — if the polls continue to show a deadlocked race, at least through the Democratic convention. At that point, there is no turning back for the party.
After all, there is nothing that can be counted on more reliably than the particular insularity of Democratic staffers. Call it message discipline. Call it drinking the Kool-Aid. But also call it something that allows Republicans to win not just the Trump/Biden argument, but a larger argument the left is making against conservative priorities.
The trick, though, is to keep this president propped up for as long as possible. In boxing terms, an early-round knockout doesn’t help here. Rather, much like a champion carrying a palooka for a given number of rounds, Republicans should hope Biden is kept just strong enough to stay relevant.
His “big boy” press conference Thursday saw him go on the attack against the former president, but in contrast to his sharper argumentative skills decades back, he seemed to flounder from point to point when he wasn’t making gaffes, conflating various issues and tropes but failing to develop them.
“Do you think our democracy is under siege based on this [Supreme] Court? Do you think democracy is under siege based on Project 2025? Do you think he means what he says when he says he is going to do away with the civil service and eliminate the Department of Education?” he asked about Trump at one point.
Contrary to his Twitter persona, Biden can’t be counted on to effectively litigate the case against Trump and his allies in the conservative movement because he’s at the point in his political career where he’s reduced to throwaway lines. Material like “Trump has the morals of an alley cat” inspires chuckles the first time you hear it but lacks the resonance to become a catch phrase.
And a lack of resonance is this president’s calling card.
It’s telling that despite Biden having 3½ years in office and having gotten initiatives like the American Rescue Plan through, along with infrastructure legislation and the “safer communities” gun-control bill, the campaign’s primary message is what it was in 2020 — a referendum on Trump. Biden can’t ask “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” because he wouldn’t like the answer from a middle class that went from predictable prosperity to turbocharged downward mobility.
In this context, the incumbent president is nothing short of a present for the Trump campaign, which got lucky in 2016 against a well-defined and unliked Democrat in Hillary Clinton and looks to luck out again against an 81-year-old with a 37% approval rating.
Republicans’ “red wave” didn’t materialize two years ago. But with Biden topping the ticket, they just may get it this time around.