Which makes a LOT of us scratch our heads?
Nate Cohn: “There’s no way around it: The news for President Biden hasn’t been great.”
“He has trailed in national and battleground state polls for months. His approval ratings are among the lowest on record for a first-term president. He’s struggling among young, Black and Hispanic voters. And all of this against an opponent who faces several criminal trials, including one that could have a verdict this week.”
“But the news is not all bad for Mr. Biden — or, at least, it’s not all that bad. The race is still pretty close. It’s close enough that he would have a very serious chance to win if the election were held tomorrow. And of course, the race won’t be held tomorrow: There are five-plus months to go for a possible Biden comeback.”
“Together, there’s a case for taking a glass-almost-half-full perspective on Mr. Biden’s chances. Right or wrong, it’s a case that maybe hasn’t gotten quite as much attention as it deserves.”…
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Edward Luce: “The shortest answer is disbelief. Democrats find it hard to imagine that the US could sleepwalk into another Trump presidency. At some point voters will surely wake up. Yet there is no consensus on how to make this happen.”
“At the start of the year, liberals had faith that the US legal system would try Trump on his more egregious indictments, notably attempting to overthrow an election. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, that prospect is vanishingly small before the November election. A guilty verdict on the hush money porn star case in New York this week would be poor consolation.”
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