This is the big political story now: Both parties are rejecting their leaders, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It’s a continuing tectonic shift and the story underlying every daily political story. It’s building and will only grow. Both parties are starting to scramble for what’s next, who’s next. Both are casting about…

As for Mr. Biden, his poll numbers continue to be historically dismal. The other day, watching him call for suspension of the federal gasoline tax, I had a sensation exactly like—well, even though we resist such comparisons here because history even when it doesn’t feel like it is always new, it felt like 1978. Nonstop crises and the president natters on. The news broadcast shows the price sticker on 2 pounds of ground beef in the local grocery store, and a shopper says, “Hard for families now,” and they cut to Washington and . . . the president natters. The next story it’s a close-up of the numbers on the gas pump in San Diego and they cut to Washington and . . . the president natters.

“Mush From the Wimp.”

And there’s a broad sense that Mr. Biden isn’t going through a rough patch or a tough year, that it’s not going to get better, that he has poor judgment and he’s about to hit 80 and it’s not going to change. Everyone sees this and it’s produced a sense of unease.

The 1/6 hearings are doing nothing to help Mr. Biden—some thought they would—but they are sinking Mr. Trump.