The Democratic tizzy extends beyond the Post’s pages. A three-minute campaign-style video produced by No Labels and reviewed by the New Republic’s Daniel Strauss posits the claim that both major parties had been hijacked by their respective ideological fringes. But the video does not mention either Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris — a development he believed was “telling.” What it told was stated clearly by New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait: No Labels is building a “political doomsday device.” Given Biden’s modest margin of victory in 2020, Chait added, “any third-party campaign would likely enable Republicans to win another presidential election simply by consolidating the right-wing base.”

Unspoken but undeniable in the subtext of these displays of handwringing is that Joe Biden’s record in office is not one we would associate with an unstoppable political juggernaut. If that’s the assumption under which No Labels’ critics are operating, it’s hard to argue against it.