President Joe Biden wants to be seen as the next Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
However, the more accurate comparison continues to be Jimmy Carter.
During the Super Tuesday primary elections, Biden drew another parallel as he became the first incumbent president in 44 years to lose a primary.
On Tuesday, Biden lost the caucuses in American Samoa to Jason Palmer — a candidate Axios described as “a previously little known longshot challenger.”
That’s tough, Joe.
Businessman Jason Palmer has won the American Samoa Democratic caucus, multiple media outlets project.
— The Recount (@therecount) March 6, 2024
The low-turnout caucus carries few delegates, but Palmer’s win makes Joe Biden the first incumbent president to lose a contested primary contest since Jimmy Carter. pic.twitter.com/hATA4K24DB
Yes, it is embarrassing for Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Marianne Williamson, who are also running against Biden, that they lost to a candidate pretty much no one has heard of, while they are in theory better known.
And yes, it is not as though American Samoa is a territory and does not have any electoral votes in the general election, so it is not as there is reason to worry about the political situation there.
However, it is super embarrassing for Biden that he lost a caucus or primary, and to such an unknown person too.
It takes a lot of disappointment and frustration with voters to lose to a virtual no-name candidate. Yet, somehow it is just so perfect for Biden and the story of his presidency.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the president insisted the polls actually show he is winning the general election — though it was not clear what polls he was looking at.
In fact, Tuesday’s results seem to corroborate what almost all the polling has been saying for months and years: Joe Biden is too old and not popular, even among Democrats.
By all historical metrics, Biden should be heading for a massive landslide defeat in November. From the economy to chaos on the world stage and the U.S.- Mexico border, to concerns about cognitive state, there are a lot of negatives and not too many positives.
It seems there is no way he can climb out of the massive electoral ditch he has found himself in.
And yet, it would be unwise to assume the situation is so dire for Democrats there is no way for Republicans to lose. If Republicans start assuming, as they incorrectly did in 2022, that anybody can win against Democrats and Biden, we’ll likely be looking at another surprising election night with four more years of Biden and probably a Democratically controlled House.