ONE-TERM BIDEN: Democrats Already Trying to Position Themselves for 2024.
Have you noticed that Elizabeth Warren keeps putting herself in front of every new current thing? When Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter was the hot story, she put herself front and center, then did the same thing with abortion.
Do you think this is a coincidence, or is it more likely that Warren is trying to remind Democrat voters that she is standing by, ready to jump in when they drop Biden?
It’s not just Warren who’s doing this. Bernie Sanders has recently said that he is prepared to run again.
In the past, being primaried hasn’t ended well for sitting presidents:
If Biden is “primaried” in 2024, it would likely be “the kiss of death” to his presidency based on trends, according to historian David Pietrusza.
Pietrusza named William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Lyndon Johnson and Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy in 1968, Gerald Ford and Reagan in 1976, Jimmy Carter and Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1980, and George H.W. Bush and former Republican aide Pat Buchanan in 1992 as examples.
“It’s not so much the fact of a primary but the circumstances of who and when,” Pietrusza said. “Right now, of course, Joe Biden is not a good ‘who,’ and 2024 is not a good ‘when.’”
For Paleologos, the Carter comparison drew the most parallels, but it could also be distinguished given today’s political partisanship.
“Keep in mind that back then there were more persuadables,” he said. “That’s what makes it a serious topic of conversation. You’ve got more people in that pool of left of center than there were in the 1970s, and that’s a bigger pool of people saying there might be a better alternative than the current president.”
Biden’s appearance alongside Rep. Abigail Spanberger in Culpeper, Virginia, last week raised eyebrows after she admitted she is “going to have a hard time getting reelected.” Spanberger secured a second term in 2020 with only a 1.8 point margin of victory.
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel described Biden as being a “burden” to Democrats like Spanberger.
“From forcing masks on school children and skyrocketing grocery and gas prices, Biden has shown he doesn’t care,” she said.
It’s as if Biden himself “governs like a man who knows he’s not running again.”