Politico is out with a piece that seems to say so…..
Joe Biden is stepping up….
But?
He’s gonna HAVE to do more and be MORE visible….
Anxiety levels among influential Democrats over Joe Biden’s place atop the ticket have begun to ebb, with even some of the party’s loudest fretters saying that he’s taken the steps needed to calm their nerves.
A combination of a more vigorous campaign schedule and a rousing State of the Union address has left top party operatives more comfortable with the current state of the campaign, even if it has yet to produce a more meaningful bump in the polls.
“The State of the Union rarely provides much of a bounce,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to then-President Barack Obama. “What was absolutely essential was that Biden show enough spark to quell the panic among his supporters, and he certainly did that.”
Axelrod has been among the most vocal in his concerns about Biden’s electoral prospects, even calling on the president to consider dropping out of the race after a series of polls emerged showing him trailing Donald Trump in critical battleground states. But he said he believed Biden had begun making a “good contrast with Trump.”
Doubts from leading Democrats over Biden’s prospects have long rankled the White House and the president himself, according to two aides not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
Among Biden advisers, there was a recognition that they needed to address the fears being expressed from operatives like Axelrod and influential journalists like Ezra Klein, who penned a widely-read essay calling for Biden to step aside. That became especially true after former special counsel Robert Hur issued a report on Biden’s handling of classified documents that portrayed the president as a forgetful old man.
But Biden aides expressed confidence they could quiet the skepticism by ramping up campaign activities and performing well in the primaries….
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“You always want to raise your numbers,” said James Carville, the longtime Democratic operative who has bemoaned a lethargy among the Biden campaign.
“For the life of me — I think they should jump all over Trump right now. He doesn’t have any money, and the Democrats have a huge advantage in money.”
But even Carville conceded that Biden has had “a good week” and that he felt marginally less panicked about the campaign. “Maybe a little bit,” he said.
Biden’s fundraising and campaign infrastructure has benefited from the fact that he has only had nominal primary challenges. In March, the campaign is expected to open 100 offices and hire hundreds of new staffers. But there are warning signs nonetheless. Progressives upset by his handling of the Israel-Hamas war have voted “uncommitted” in significant numbers in several primary elections. And there are few remaining opportunities to make direct appeals to such a large swath of the country that Biden was afforded in his State of the Union…..