Joe Biden’s presidency is bursting with all the swagger and success of Jimmy Carter. There are even six American hostages in Israel. His polling is absolutely dismal. But Carter faced a rough primary season with Ted Kennedy. The Democrats and their media allies have suppressed all primary opponents for Biden. …

So why isn’t there major opposition to Biden? Start with this ugly fact: Pro-Biden media outlets don’t want to give opponents any airtime. Then there are the individual states blocking Biden opponents from getting on the ballot.

ABCNews.com reported in December on some of those antics. In late November, Florida Democrats “quietly” submitted a list of candidates to their secretary of state — and only Biden was on it. The move is expected to cause a cancellation of a primary. Democracy triumphs again?

[Well … yes, in the sense that this is largely how incumbent politics works, especially with the presidency. Tim’s a smart man and a good conservative, but he’s simply off base here. Kennedy’s challenge to Carter was more the exception than the rule even then (and so was Reagan’s primary challenge to Ford four years earlier, for that matter). The two major parties set the rules for primaries, and both of them act to discourage primaries at all when incumbents choose to run for a second term. Does anyone recall competitive primaries for Republicans in 2020, Democrats in 2012, the GOP in 2004 or in 1984? There simply wasn’t any demand for a competitive challenge in those cases, not even with a low-polling Trump four years ago, although he wasn’t polling as low as Biden is now. If there was a large demand for competitive primaries among Democrats this cycle, the state parties would organize them. — Ed]