The honeymoon is over for Joe Biden. The man who ran as the unifier, the man with character, the nice guy who wouldn’t send out mean tweets, the foreign-policy expert who would restore America’s place in the world, has been revealed as the hard-hearted president who left Americans and Afghan allies behind in Afghanistan after making a tactical decision so irresponsible that it’s been condemned across the political spectrum.
The latest poll to illustrate America’s rude awakening to, and rejection of, President Biden comes from ABC News/Washington Post.
It makes you wonder what the Never-Trumpers are thinking right now, and how they’re justifying their vote. I talked to one last week, who’s already making the ‘yes, but’ argument in defense of Joe. It goes like this: Joe Biden will recover because Americans have short memories, and he has lots of time to erase the memory of the Afghanistan withdrawal disaster. The ‘yes but’ argument continues that Trump is a mean you-know-what and anyone is better than him. Expect to hear lots of the ‘yes but’ arguments in the future. It’s true that we have short memories; the Never-Trumper I talked to makes a valid point. But Biden’s Afghanistan nightmare – and his cringe-worthy ‘extraordinary success’ pat-on-the-back news conference – have neutralized the ‘character’ issue used against Trump.
What does it all mean for 2024? We’ll each decide. For now, however, America has buyers’ remorse. Here’s the new Emerson College poll of registered voters. It has a 2.7% margin of error, meaning the result below – Trump 47%, Biden 46% – is within the margin. You can bet Mr. Trump is watching very closely.
UPDATE
Think he’s running? Mr. Trump has announced two more rallies, both in key states.
Former President Trump will barnstorm Iowa and Georgia in the coming weeks as he looks to maintain his tight grip on the GOP base.
Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, announced Tuesday evening that the former president will appear in Perry, Ga., on Sept. 25 and then in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 9.
The rallies come as speculation mounts over Trump’s political future. The former president has flirted with a third White House bid in 2024 but has kept voters in suspense by not saying definitively if he’ll launch a comeback campaign.
