With the flurry of information that goes around before a presidential election, it can be hard to know what’s true and what’s simply conjecture.
One thing is for certain; if CNN is willing to admit that their darling President Joe Biden is doing bad, he’s doing very bad.
Presidential polling has been all over the place ahead of the November general election.
According to FiveThirtyEight, on average, former President Donald Trump has managed to stay ahead of the incumbent president in key states, though the margin of victory greatly varies.
Looking at individual polls, instead of averages, shows even more chaotic turbulence.
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With all that information flying around, CNN is (shockingly) making it easier for everybody to understand: Trump is ahead and Biden is behind where it matters.
On Sunday’s episode of “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” CNN host Fareed Zakaria put it bluntly for his viewers: “As someone worried about the prospects of a second Trump term, I think it’s best to be honest about reality.”
Zakaria proceeded to give a stark warning to Democrats throughout the country when he noted that “Trump is now leading in almost all the swing states.”
When the ’24 race began to take shape, I thought Pres. Biden had a strong pitch to voters: a rebounding economy and a return to normalcy after the chaos of Covid & Trump.
Things haven’t played out that way.
My take: pic.twitter.com/WAwifAZjfB
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) May 12, 2024
Will Biden’s economy become a dominating factor in the election?
He noted issues like the conflict in Gaza and the economy have created massive rifts in the party, an issue that Democrats are still actively grappling with.
Economic issues in particular are hamstringing Biden, as the generally poor state of the economy affects all people across all political persuasions.
The CNN host also talked about polls looking overall unfavorable for the aging Delaware politician, specifically with progressive Democrats.
“I understand that polls are not always accurate, but in general, they have tended to underestimate Donald Trump’s support, not overestimated,” he stated. “I doubt that there are many shy Biden voters in the country.”
Additional issues like third-party candidates and concerns over Biden’s mental acuity at work worsen his chances in November.
“The one that troubles me most concerns the question of who is more competent,” he said. “Biden led Trump by nine points in 2020, but Trump now leads by 16 points in 2024. That 25-point shift could be a reflection of people’s sense that the president’s age is affecting his capacity to govern.”
Zakaria then delivered the punchline to all of this bad news: “If so, there is very little that Biden can do to change that perception.”
Things look bleak for Biden and it’s not just his dissenters saying it.
His campaign is not finding the success he wanted in his re-election run.
As Zakaria said, “trendlines are not working in Biden’s favor. He needs to do something bold and dramatic to seize the initiative — on asylum policy for example — and reverse these numbers.”
But Biden is not the “bold and dramatic” type so much as he’s the senile and slow type.
Look, nobody with a shred of honesty is trying to call the November election in May, or to suggest that Trump is guaranteed a victory.
By that same token, however, nobody with a shred of intelligence can look at all these early signs and suggest that Biden’s path to victory isn’t becoming a longer and longer shot by the day.
While it’s definitely too early to call the election, it certainly seems that everyone knows roughly how it’s going to play out.
