BIDEN FACES TOUGH ROAD:  We always caution about the use of polls, especially this far before a presidential election.  But I think you'll see many more than usual this year because the election facts are just so weird.  We have a clearly impaired president trying to get re-elected, facing an indicted frontrunner of the opposition party.  What a movie!

So the polling must adjust to the realities.  A new poll shows just what Joe Biden is facing.  From Daily Mail: 

A new poll for DailyMail.com lays bare the challenge facing President Joe Biden as he runs for reelection: Almost half of Democrats believe he is too old for the job, and 52 of all voters believe they are worse off since he became president.

Republicans have used both as attack lines in their campaigns to unseat Biden.

The president has always been gaffe-prone, but now any botched comment is seized on as evidence that the 80-year-old is no longer fit for office.

And after presiding over gas price spikes and a year of rampant inflation, Republicans believe they can beat him on pocket book issues.

A new DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll shows how Biden is vulnerable on both issues.

It found that 71 percent of likely general election voters believe he is too old to be president — let alone at the end of a second term, when he would be 86.

The numbers are skewed by political preference, but even 49 percent of Democrats agree. 
Only 28 percent of them believe he is 'about the right age.'  

Biden has tried to laugh off concerns that he no longer has the energy or sharpness for the job, but those efforts have sometimes backfired.

On Friday he tried it in front of a friendly crowd at a gun control rally in Connecticut.
'A lot of you are tired. You're tired. No, I get it. Try being 110 and doing it again,' he said to laughs. 

But he left everyone confused at the end of the speech when his final words were: 'God save the Queen.'

At 80, Biden is already the nation's oldest president. Every day he extends the record.

He is in generally good health and experts say he might even be a 'superager,' one of a small number of people whose cognitive functioning is decades younger than his body.

That is lost on most voters, said James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners, which conducted the poll.

'There are few things that unite American voters, but there is one: the belief that Biden is too old to be president,' he said.

'Decisive margins across all age groups, ethnic groups, and political parties agree with the sentiment. 

'And worryingly for the current president, those most likely to say they are worse off under Biden's policies include groups with disproportionate impact come an election: Independent voters and 45-64 year olds. 

'Though he managed to avoid his age becoming a pivotal issue in 2020, it looks set to be the defining hesitation in voters' minds next year.'

COMMENT:  And Biden's age problem will be worse on election day 2024, more than a year and a half from now.

And all voters will know that if Biden is elected, Kamala Harris is likely to become president.  There's a biological reality here. There's also a political reality.  Harris is less popular than Biden. 

We have to wonder whether the president will actually run.  He's an old hand at politics, and he knows what the polls are saying.  A graceful withdrawal might be his best option.

June 18,  2023