As President Joe Biden continues to shuffle toward the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, Americans keep sending the same message over, and over, and over again: He is too old to run for re-election.
Whether or not he sees the message or he is willfully choosing to ignore it is an open question.
But on Monday, a poll from The Wall Street Journal handed him another devastating piece of news about how even members of his own party feel about the prospect of a second Biden term.
A whopping 73% of voters said they believe Biden, who would be 86 at the end of another term, is too old to run for president.
Even two-thirds of Democrats think he is too old.
But the news gets even worse for Biden as just 47% of voters say former President Donald Trump — who is not a spring chicken at age 77 — is too old for the presidency.
This poll comes a week after an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found that 77% of respondents said Biden is too old to be effective in a second term, including 69% of Democrats.
Additionally, just 36% of voters said Biden is mentally up to the job, while 46% said the same of Trump.
The 46th president does have an edge in the poll when it comes to the question of which candidate voters believe is more honest and likable.
But when it comes to accomplishments, 48% said Trump has a “strong record” of accomplishments, while just 40% said the same of Biden.
And for a president who actually got a decent amount of legislation passed with some of the slimmest majorities in Congress, that is a pretty dismal statement of how Americans feel about his time in office. It is as if Americans feel Biden has had no tangible, beneficial impact on their lives — which is not great for an incumbent running again.
Perhaps the worst number of all in this poll relates to the hypothetical head-to-head match-up which shows Trump and Biden tied for the general election at 46%.
Given Democrats’ visceral hatred of Trump, it is hard to see them staying home in 2024 or voting for him instead of Biden. But these polls cannot be ignored, and they should be a warning sign to any candidate who cares about the will of his constituents and respects them.
Democrats may be willing to vote for Biden, but that does not mean they really want to. And this time around, his basement strategy may not be enough if the economy goes south, or if some other crisis occurs.
