OPINION:
President Biden is in trouble. Recent polls in Georgia and Michigan show that Mr. Biden is losing to former President Donald Trump in a head-to-head matchup this November.
After watching Mr. Trump’s massive win in the Iowa caucuses, David Axelrod, former adviser to President Barack Obama, sounded the alarm for those on the left. He said: “The president and his campaign need to get into gear, and they need a message. And they need a message that takes in not just democracy but the day-to-day concerns that people have.”
The bad news for Mr. Biden and his team is they don’t have a message that meets the day-to-day concerns of most Americans. All they want to talk about is democracy, when we live in a republic.
In the fall of 2022, I sat for an interview in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” He asked what impact Jan. 6 would have on voters in my state. I challenged him to walk around Frame Park with me and find a resident who was motivated by the issue of Jan. 6. There was not one vote; people had moved on from what had happened nearly two years earlier.
Liberal activists seem to wake up obsessing over Jan. 6. Most Americans obsess about how they are going to pay the bills. Under “Bidenomics,” they are paying more. According to a report from the Senate, a typical household pays about $11,500 more each year in living costs than they did in January 2021, before Mr. Biden took office.
My son and daughter-in-law are trying to buy their first home. Alex and Bailey will pay about $1,500 more a month on the mortgage than they would have before Mr. Biden took office. This a problem for millions of young couples like them — and it is a problem for the Biden campaign.
According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll of registered voters in Georgia, Mr. Trump is beating Mr. Biden by 45% to 37%, with nearly 20% not ready to support either candidate. Winning Georgia would be critical for the 45th president to become the 47th president.
Voters seem willing to accept political chaos for economic stability.
In Michigan, a new poll commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV shows that Mr. Trump has an 8-percentage point lead on President Biden. It also found that only 17% said the incumbent deserved reelection. The newspaper noted that this is “a low for a major public officeholder in modern Michigan political history.”
Nationwide, Mr. Biden’s approval rating is just 33%, according to ABC News. That is worse than Mr. Trump’s lowest rating as president. Among independents, who are critical to electoral success in swing states, his approval rating is just 28%.
As James Carville put it more than three decades ago, “It’s the economy, stupid!” The ABC News poll shows that just 13% of Americans believe they are better off financially since Mr. Biden took office, while 43% say that they are not as well off.
Lately, the Biden campaign strategy seems to be to tell people that things are getting better. They point to low unemployment and rising wages. Only 24% of the respondents agree with that analysis. In contrast, 71% say that “the economy is in bad shape, given higher prices and interest rates.”
Younger voters have been the key to success for Democrats over the past few election cycles. In 2022, 18- to 29-year-olds helped turn a predicted red wave into a fizzle in most states. This voting bloc sided with the liberal candidates by more than 30 percentage points in critical states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.
In a poll conducted by Young America’s Foundation before the first GOP presidential primary debate, college students identified that the economy was their top issue. They also questioned President Biden’s ability to govern. If younger voters are worried about the economy, the Biden campaign is in trouble.
Recently, I was on a “Meet the Press” panel. A Boston Globe columnist said that a rising stock market was a good sign for the Biden campaign. I suggested that most panelists in Washington and New York City were living in a bubble. While wages have gone up for some, prices for key consumer items are much higher. Increases in the stock market and gross domestic product don’t pay the bills. Most Americans get that, and it is why Mr. Biden’s numbers are in the tank.
David Axelrod gets it. No amount of plans to end excessive fees on airline travel or hotel stays is going to cut it. Americans need help paying for gasoline, groceries and housing. And they blame President Biden, which is why he is in trouble.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.