Joe Biden
AP Photo/Evan Vucci

When it comes to U.S. politics, there are two big phases in a campaign: the primary and the general election. During the primary season, a candidate has to prioritize appealing to the people in his or her own party. This means that most candidates will appear more extreme, because winning that primary means building a coalition of people in the party.

But, once the primary is over, the rules of the game change. Instead of appealing to their political parties, candidates instead need to appeal to all voters, with particular attention paid in swing states. Inability to shift gears and start appealing to voters between and across the aisle means certain defeat, but the candidate must also balance this without alienating voters on the fringes of their in-party coalition who might be tempted to stay home.

Normally, an incumbent president is in a great position to appeal to the broader public by July of an election year. Incumbents generally don’t have to face a grueling primary season the way a challenger does, so they even get the advantage of being able to start that shift earlier and more aggressively.

This is not a normal election year, and seems to be getting weirder by the minute. For one, it’s a race between two incumbents, as both major candidates have spent time in the Oval Office. We’re also seeing Trump almost completely ignore the usual playbook, working to appeal to and grow the Republican base instead of trying to appeal to moderates and Democrats. Now, we’re seeing Biden slip in serious ways.

If it weren’t for a very poor recent debate performance, Biden would probably be in the driver’s seat. With Trump and his followers working to build a more solid right-wing coalition and stamp out dissent among conservatives, Biden should have been able to use his incumbent primary advantage to pull in massive numbers of independents, moderates and even less committed conservatives who are skeptical of MAGA. So, the only softening Trump has had to throw in so far has been a slightly softened stance on abortion and gay marriage.

Instead of being able to press the advantage, Biden is shifting back into primary mode, fighting to keep the Democratic coalition together. Not only is he facing trouble from the left, as newly-minted Hamas supporters vow to not vote for him over Israel policy, but he’s also facing calls for him to step down due to age and a general inability to look and act presidential on the stage.

Worse for Biden and the Democrats, there’s no clear alternative candidate. Ask any Democrat, and instead of telling you who they think would beat Trump, most of them will tell you who their favorite alternative is. Among the stronger candidates would be Vice President Kamala Harris, but she was roundly rejected during the primaries in her own party, and would probably fail to keep the coalition together once everyone is reminded that she’s anything but a “progressive prosecutor.” So, there’s really no good alternative out there that Democrats can pull out of their collective butts.

While everyone has been focused on Biden’s overuse of “anyways” and confusing Zelenskyy for Putin, it’s his little quips on guns that really show the peril he’s now in as a presidential candidate. Any honest polling in recent years show that gun ownership and gun rights has gone mainstream. The days of appealing to moderates and centrists with gun control are over, and many segments of the communist far left are even skeptical of it now, as they know they’d need guns for a revolution.

The only crowd a candidate can impress with talk of gun control are hard-core big government progressives who want to continue the FDR revolution and put the United States back on the road to a collectivist utopia. Everyone else, even the communists, knows that it’s not a policy that would serve their interests in the long run.

Arguably, one of the biggest advantages Biden had going for him was distaste with red state abortion bans that didn’t have sufficient exceptions for rape, incest, etc. Seeing Biden tie this advantageous policy situation to gun control with a “Protect Girls Not Guns” slogan shows us that he’s so desperate to keep the big government progressive coalition together that he’s willing to even throw in his best card. What could have been used to save him in the general election is instead getting flushed down the toilet with gun control to impress the wrong people.

Obviously, we’re still months out from the big day in November, and a lot can happen, but if Biden can’t move out of primary mode and start appealing to the broader electorate while playing to his few big strengths that can reach across the aisle, he’s got no chance to survive as a candidate.

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28 COMMENTS

    • Sorry, jwm, but Biden IS stupid . . . and always has been. Biden has been stupid since the first moment he stepped onto the floor of the Senate, and has been WRONG on every serious policy question during his career (including, interestingly, being wrong by being on the opposite sides of an issue (Afghanistan, for example – he was for it before he was against it). He is credibly accused of sexual assault (and our idiot Leftist friends talk about Trump’s sexual sins). He is a serial liar (and a clumsy one), he is a plagiarist, and he’s an obnoxious bully . . . in addition to being a goniff. He was a clown 40 years ago; now he is a SENILE clown.

      But, yes, he does have dementia (to add to the telephone-book list of his other mental deficiencies).

        • Dear Debbie Dimwit,

          Very relevant, cogent, and helpful comment. Did MajorLiar help you write it???

          And why did you omit your omnipresent “gun control is racist” rant?? Otherwise, every bit the helpful, well-thought-out comment we’ve come to expect from you.

          • “Dear Debbie Dimwit,”
            And you are lecturing someone on “Very relevant, cogent, and helpful comment(s)”

            So what exactly does your comment contain when it comes to a “…relevant, cogent, and helpful comment”???

            All I can gather from it is an example of projection on your part!

            • May not be wrong but may also want to go over the last 2 or 3 years of comments to see a pattern.

  3. Unlike last time the steal likely will be met with a ferocious backlash. Especially if someone like Kamaltoe “wins”.

  4. “If it weren’t for a very poor recent debate performance, Biden would probably be in the driver’s seat.”

    LOLOL Do you even politics, bro? Biden only finally agreed to the debate because he was already behind! The debate was a last ditch effort to right the ship. This was before the world “found out” about the Puppet’s dementia. Anyone halfway paying attention noticed his severe cognitive decline in 2019. They carefully managed his scripted appearances, and pumped him full of drugs to make it through the debates. They hid him under the cover of Covid. They thought they could continue to do that through the 24 election!

    Voters were lied to in 2020. They found out. Life was easy under Trump, pre-Covid. Democrat policies don’t make sense unless you’re an elite cashing in or an ignorant partisan. That’s before you factor in a brain dead puppet as the president. I’ve been calling him a puppet since he “won” in 2020. I have a full-time job unrelated to politics or journalism. How did I see that when the media and the Democrat pols completely missed it? Hint: they didn’t miss it! They don’t care about America. They only care about themselves and their cronies. They wanted an empty vessel. They wanted power. “The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury.”

    Just wait until Americans figure out the Dems stole the 2020 election, and installed an illegitimate president. Georgia still can’t produce the legitimate ballots required to backup their results. Why isn’t the media covering that?

    “Arguably, one of the biggest advantages Biden had going for him was distaste with red state abortion bans…”

    Now hang on just a second. I have it on good authority that the most important thing to Democrats is democracy. What I’m hearing from you is that Democrats want to use the power of the federal government to override democracy in red states. So they actually hate democracy, don’t they? Why can’t I live over here, and do my thing with democracy, and you live over there, doing your thing with democracy? Why do you have to force your values on states that don’t agree with your values? That’s called tyrannical rule. It sure isn’t democracy.

    • Don’t worry about it. Jen doesn’t know diddly. Just a prog that like guns

      As “exceptions for rape, incest” – total BS/red herring. Statistics on “rape, incest” being an excuse for infanticide are near ZERO. It rationalization for bad behavior.

  5. Some how the Dems will steal it again after the polls close and thousands of boxes of mail in ballots show up after midnight from the cemetaries

  9. This whole article is irrelevant. Even after Biden is dead and rotting in the ground the Anti 2A threat will still exist. Just as dangerous as it is now. Why? Because it is Allowed.

  10. Here’s hoping that Trump chooses wisely before announcing his VP pick… I’m holding out hope that hegoes for the ultimate shakeup of status quo an goes with Tulsi Gabbard as his choice. Yes, she USED to be a dem – same as The Donald, but has renounced her formal trappings, especially on her 2nd Amendment views. It would all ut guarantee a landslide victory.
    What say ye all?

    • I wonder how well she’d be at explaining to Democrat voters why they shouldn’t vote for Democrats.

      Also, Baldwin’s case dismissed by the judge. How convenient. It’s over.

  11. Dementia Joe got himself worked up last night, fun to watch. I wish someone would ask him again for his advice on having a shotgun around the house.

  12. Last night Biden gave a good enough performance to keep him in the race for now. I think he will make it to the convention, but it remains to be seen whether he will survive a determined attack there.

    • The convention in Chicago this year will make the ’68 convention look like the Macy’s parade. For those old enough to remember the ’68 convention you know what i mean.

      • Yeah I was 14. Quite a spectacle🙄😀Unfortunately we live perhaps 20 miles south & the Dims banned my rifle. I may or may not have access to it. “May”. And I’m sure as he!! not 14🙄

        • If you don’t need to use it then it was never there. Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. Either you or the Mrs. Once the smoke clears and all is well. If having it still makes you uncomfortable then take it elsewhere. Keep Your Powder Dry.

  13. How many fence-sitting swingers are there, really?

    Everyone I know is either “blue no matter who” or “red or dead.”

    I don’t know anyone who’s uncertain how they’re voting.

    Now, I’m sure there are a bunch of retards who will just do as they’re told by some social working entity or for a small bribe of a free lunch but I wouldn’t call those fence-sitters. They’re just barely alive human husks with empty skulls waiting for a shepherd.

    • Their vote will be determined by the media effectiveness of hyping or burying the latest breaking “October Surprise” from the Democrats.

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