The NY Times ask’s this question in looking at the ex-Governor’s campaign to get his job back….
Why?
Joe Biden has lousy polling numbers….
His economy is about inflation….
Biden has had Independent , and a LOT of Swing voters dessert him along with even some Minority voters….
For weeks, Mr. McAuliffe has made little mention of President Biden, instead using his campaign rallies, media interviews and millions of dollars in campaign advertising to make the race all about former President Donald J. Trump.
In a way, Mr. Biden’s campaign stop with Mr. McAuliffe on a chilly Tuesday night, as part of a final-week effort to energize Democratic voters, highlighted just how little the president has been present in the race at all.
Even as Congress worked feverishly to pass his legislative agenda, Mr. Biden focused his remarks on his predecessor, casting Mr. McAuliffe’s Republican rival, Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive, as offering a hearty endorsement of Mr. Trump’s “bad ideas” and “bad record.”…
…
Indeed, the delicate distance Mr. McAuliffe spent weeks putting between his campaign and the president, his friend of four decades — whom Mr. McAuliffe helped carry Virginia by 10 points just a year ago — underscores a difficult reality for Democrats looking anxiously ahead to the midterm elections next year. With his moderate, art-of-the-possible politics, Mr. Biden fails to rouse anywhere near the same passions as Mr. Trump, who spurred Democrats to the polls in record numbers. Nor has Mr. Biden’s administration given Mr. McAuliffe much to advertise, after months of Democratic infighting on Capitol Hill over the president’s dwindling domestic ambitions.
Rather, in an off-year election with outsize national importance, Mr. Biden has loomed as the unnamed president just offstage: largely ignored in favor of his predecessor, though his own performance is a major factor in the closeness of the race and could play a big role in its outcome…..
…
Advisers to Mr. McAuliffe note that his contest with Mr. Youngkin tightened at the end of the summer, just as Mr. Biden’s approval rating began to fall, as the president’s promise of a return to normalcy faltered in the face of the Delta variant, chaos on the southern border and the tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But they see hopeful signs in the fact that Mr. McAuliffe’s support remains higher than Mr. Biden’s approval rating, which hovers in the low to mid-40s — lower than that of any president than Mr. Trump at this early stage….
Note…
Election Day is Tuesday