OPINION:
For more than a year, a majority of Americans polled have said that President Biden should not run for reelection, including most Democrats.
A majority also believe the president lied about his involvement in his son Hunter’s business dealings and that he benefited financially from them.
Majorities believe that Mr. Biden, who would be 86 at the end of his second term, is showing significant signs of physical and cognitive decline.
Even among normally stalwart Black voters, Mr. Biden’s approval rating has sunk between 20 and 40 points, depending on the survey.
The scandal-plagued president is facing mounting evidence of participating in a pay-to-play scheme.
He has fallen in public several times, has repeatedly looked confused, described America as “Asufutimaehaehfutbw,” and recently ended a speech with “God save the queen, man.”
This past week, he told reporters that Vladimir Putin was losing the war — in Iraq.
People are increasingly wondering if a vote for Mr. Biden is really a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. An NBC News poll this past week found she is the least popular VP in history.
He’s governed socially and fiscally from the far left while wielding the power of the executive branch with such force and with such disdain for the Constitution, President Barack Obama would be proud.
Despite these negatives, the vaunted standard-bearers of the Republican Party filling the stage for the 2024 primary season are all either losing to the president or barely beating him in surveys.
The recent NBC News poll showed former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis losing to Mr. Biden even as it found that 68% of registered voters are concerned that the president doesn’t have the “necessary mental and physical health” to serve.
That poll is one of dozens that fit a troubling pattern.
True, polling at this point is suspect for a range of reasons, and a presidential campaign is not a national race, but 50 statewide elections.
But Republicans are struggling in that context as well. Mr. Trump, for instance, is down 9 points in recent polling and New Hampshire and Wisconsin, while up only 1 point in must-win Pennsylvania, well within the margin of error.
The disjointed Republican message hurt the party tremendously in 2022, and it appears it may do so again in 2024.
Mr. Trump wants another shot, but his negatives are still high among key demographic groups.
Mr. DeSantis wants to “Make America Florida,” but what does that mean, exactly?
Other candidates are trying to get traction, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is attempting to advance an agenda, but it’s all a political cacophony.
Not surprisingly, Democrats have another tack. Mr. Biden continues to be under water on the economy, but the White House is convinced it can pull the wool over the eyes of Americans through a disciplined campaign extolling the virtues of big spending programs.
Mr. Biden will dole out billions to states, communities and interest groups to put lipstick on one of the biggest economic pigs in history.
On the social front, critical race theory, environmental, social and governance agendas, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs are losing issues, along with the left’s obsession with gender ideology.
That’s why Democratic officialdom will largely stick to so-called abortion rights. It’s a smart play.
House Republicans, on the other hand, are holding hearings that make for great live events on cable news but aren’t advancing or selling a discernible agenda. The Republican National Committee is busy blasting Mr. Biden but isn’t managing a message operation that gets members of Congress, governors and surrogates singing the same tune.
America is suffocating under a fiscal avalanche of debt, deficits and a mountain of federal regulations that threaten to upend the economy of every household. The Biden White House will ignore it all with ice cream cones and happy talk.
Republicans will hold another hearing.
People believe that a spirited primary race for the GOP nomination will damage the Republican Party. They’re wrong.
What will keep this campaign close and perhaps victory out of reach for Republicans is a lack of focus on what Americans care about.
Those issues aren’t new. It’s their wallets first, then issues that directly affect their families.
Americans make decisions from the inside out, starting with their kitchen tables.
Personalities are important, but this isn’t a TV show. People want to hear what you are doing or are going to do for them. That’s why candidates with message discipline win and those who flail about and ramble on, lose.
Presidential elections are a marathon, not a sprint. Republicans are having some knee pain in the eighth mile they shouldn’t ignore.
They’d better figure out how they are going to make it to the finish and beat their time from 2020. Right now, that’s nowhere close to a sure thing.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax and the author of “Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq.” He served as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from 2003 to 2004.
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