Democrats Starting to Hope for a Mel Carnahan Moment With Biden

Look, I know going into this that stating the obvious is going to get me lit on fire by the left. But I’m just stating a painful truth publicly that they’re all muttering about privately.

In 2000, Senator John Ashcroft ran for re-election against Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan. The race was close, but in the end, Carnahan died tragically in a plane crash. The death brought an outpouring of sympathy in a race Ashcroft was expected to win and the result was, instead, a Carnahan win with sympathy for him.

Mel Carnahan won with 51% of the vote with his wife went to the Senate on his behalf.

No one really disputes that if Carnahan had not died, Ashcroft would have won. Ashcroft remains the only incumbent U.S. Senator to be beaten by a dead man.

As awful as it sounds to say, Democrats really don’t have many options left with the public tide turning against them. In poll after poll, it seems the Roe bounce has subsided and voters are back to fretting about the economy. Democrats have reached a new level of grumbling about their own party’s leader.

Biden is now lower in all the polling averages than Trump was in 2018. The GOP is surging again on the generic ballot. The NPR poll that had Democrats with a 7 point bounce in the generic poll appears to be an anomaly.

Things are grim for the Democrats.

In fact, things have gotten so bad that the New York Times is now openly questioning Biden’s age and competence. Clearly, word has gone out that it is okay to do so now.

For the last few years, it has been verboten. You are not allowed to question Biden’s competence, age, mental acuity, or stamina. Suddenly, the Times is doing it and reporters are all defense that they’ve been doing it all along. Their reference points are articles from 2019 before Bide secured the nomination.

In reality, for the past two years, any reports about Biden’s stamina, mental fitness, or age have been dismissed as Republican talking points. But now, the Times is doing it.

Mr. Biden’s public appearances have fueled that perception. His speeches can be flat and listless. He sometimes loses his train of thought, has trouble summoning names or appears momentarily confused. More than once, he has promoted Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “President Harris.” Mr. Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, stumbles over words like “kleptocracy.” He has said Iranian when he meant Ukrainian and several times called Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, “John,” confusing him with the late Republican senator of that name from Virginia.

The Times report is respectful of the President, but also of a variety the press has been loathed to produce.

That the Times would do this is telling. Democrats at large blame the President. Both a CNN piece and a Politico piece directly attacked the President’s White House management without ever mentioning even White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.

Over the last two years, late-night comedy shows, weekend comedy shows, and TV shows, in general, have all avoided making Biden the butt of jokes. Other Presidents were routinely joked about, laughed at, and mocked. Biden, however, is protected. To the extent there are jokes, they are mild. The cultural opinion elite are highly protective of him. One must now wonder, in light of the Times article and Democrat sentiment in general, if the late-night comedians and TV writers of America will turn on the President.

Democrats have had enough of the man. Their internal polling must be horrendous — so bad that we should start asking not if Biden will serve a second term, but if he will complete the first term. And privately, Democrats are starting to wonder if it would be best for their party and generate some midterm sympathy for them if Biden simply exited by any means.

Democrats need some positive energy to help them in the midterms. Sympathy is about the last avenue they have.