Consensus! 75% of Democrats in CNN poll agree with nearly everyone else about Biden

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Astounding! Right now the only people in America who want Joe Biden to run for a second term are either named Biden, or are afraid of a Kamala Harris succession. According to a new CNN poll, three quarters of Democrats want Biden to retire at the end of this term — or, failing that, for the Democratic Party to force Biden into retirement:

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A new CNN poll finds 75% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters want the party to nominate someone other than President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, a sharp increase from earlier this year.

The poll comes as Biden’s approval ratings remain low and most Americans are discontented with the state of the country and the economy. Inflation remains high and a new report released Tuesday showed consumer confidence slipped for the third straight month.

Twenty-four percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters said they want someone else because they don’t think Biden can win in 2024, up from 18% in a poll conducted in January and February. Thirty-two percent feel that way because they don’t want Biden to be reelected, up from 16% earlier this year. Twenty-five percent said they prefer Biden as the nominee, which is a steep drop from 45% in January/February.

The poll shows a sharp downturn in enthusiasm for a 2024 reelection bid by the President. In January/February, 51% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters said they wanted someone other than Biden to be the Democratic nominee in 2024.

Worth noting: at this same time four years ago, Donald Trump got 75% support from Republicans for a 2020 re-election bid. Biden has flipped into the mirror-image of that picture, and apparently for one overriding reason. CNN breaks down the reasoning among the forced-retirement cohort of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, and it’s not all tactical/strategic. The plurality simply have had enough of Biden’s presidency:

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This shows that even while the numbers have gone up for jettisoning Biden from 51% to 75%, the percentage of those just flat-out rejecting Biden himself has also increased by eleven points over the last six months. That looks more like a drain from more palatable excuses, a category which dropped by eight points, such as wanting a better candidate or even Biden’s age. which still comes in a solid third in the list of reasons. Even the strategic considerations of 2024 lessened a bit, going from 35% of 51% in February to 32% of 75% now.

The hard truth: Democrats don’t like Biden now that they’ve had a chance to see him as president. Give them some credit for catching up to the rest of us, albeit two years late.

A similar trend is happening among Republicans regarding Donald Trump in this poll, albeit to a lesser degree. Six months ago, GOP voters in the CNN sample split 50/49 in favor of another Trump run, but that is now 44/55 against. The percentage of the GOP voters that simply don’t want Trump to be president has risen ten points in that period, from 39% of 49% to 49% of the 55% that now oppose him. Only 15% say they’re worried that Trump can’t beat the Democrats, down seven points from six months ago, but the other reasons are more evenly distributed: need a new face, too polarizing, too old, baggage, and so on.

One might even think that Americans of all stripes simply want a new set of choices in 2024 a set that doesn’t involve candidates born before rock and roll was invented. Another consensus! Astounding again!

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The problem for Biden and Democrats is that the two sides aren’t equal in this regard. Even apart from the fact that a new candidate would still have the albatross of Biden’s presidency hung around his/her neck, who could step into that role? The same old burnouts that Biden beat in 2020 despite barely showing up? Republicans have at least three governors (Ron DeSantis, Glenn Youngkin, Doug Ducey) peaking in this cycle or the next, plus some younger Senate figures like Tim Scott and Tom Cotton as new and fresh faces in 2024 that could eclipse Trump. Democrats have … Elizabeth Warren and Gavin Newsom, who barely withstood a recall effort in deep-blue California. They have alternatives in purple-to-red states, but progressive activists won’t let them breathe in a national race.

But let’s quibble about that later, and just enjoy the consensus Americans have reached on Joe Biden and his incompetence.

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