OPINION:
At an age when most American politicians are living comfortably in retirement, 80-year-old Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is ready to try for four more years in the White House.
It’s not as far-fetched as some people seem to think. Not because we’re generally living longer, healthier lives or that he’s shown he’s up to the task, but because a bunch of polls show him edging out his most likely GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump.
Somehow, we don’t find that very reassuring. We’ve been raised to believe public service is a noble calling. Running for something because the polls say you’d likely win seems to tarnish that idea.
We’re willing to acknowledge the voters may prefer another four years of President Biden to another four of Mr. Trump now before the campaign begins in earnest. We also believe that could and probably would change once the contest gets underway.
If Mr. Biden is looking at the polls for guidance on what to do, there are a few others he should consult, like the NBC News poll that found just 26% of Americans thought he should run for a second term.
That’s hardly a ringing endorsement. Equally problematic, in that same poll, 53% of the people who said they voted for him in 2020 said he shouldn’t run again. That’s telling.
When it comes down to it, people are not happy either with the way Mr. Biden is running the country or the way the people who are running Mr. Biden are running the country. The president campaigned as the moderate, responsible alternative to both Mr. Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, but there’s been nothing moderate about what he’s done since coming into office.
That’s showing up in the polls too. A recent CNN poll in which just 32% of respondents said he deserved to be reelected had almost three-quarters of those participating — 74% — saying the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The president’s job approval rating is upside down on key issues, including his handling of the economy, inflation, immigration, China and crime. The latest ABC News poll had 41% of Americans saying they are worse off financially now than they were two years ago.
Mr. Biden may want to be president for four more years, but the people don’t want him to be. He hasn’t done a good job. Just over 60% of those who were counted in the ABC poll said he’s accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing.” The numbers don’t lie.
It’s not as if the Democrats didn’t have viable alternatives out there. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is for the moment fully behind the idea of a second term for Mr. Biden, has been engaged in a stealth national campaign introducing himself to voters outside his home state.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is said to have been Mr. Biden’s original choice for vice president until the unfolding national chaos during the Black Lives Matter riots forced him to pick then-Sen. Kamala Harris, is also an attractive choice. Despite enacting and enforcing one of the nation’s strongest lockdown regimes during the pandemic, Ms. Whitmer won reelection handily with coattails strong enough to hand control of the state Legislature to the Democrats for the first time in 40 years. Now she, like Mr. Newsom, is governing as the effective progressive many Democrats hoped Mr. Biden might turn out to be.
From the perspective of many Democrats, either of them could and probably would be a better president. It would be hard for them to be worse.
Poll after poll has shown people want a choice in 2024, in the primaries as well as the general election. Democrats worry about Mr. Biden’s ability to beat Mr. Trump because they know he has no record to run on, not because he’s the oldest president in U.S. history.
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