DEMOCRATS FINALLY HAVE A CAMPAIGN MESSAGE: WE'RE NOT BIDEN

The stories keep coming. From The Washington Post:

In the view of many distraught Democrats, the country is facing a full-blown crisis on a range of fronts, and Biden seems unable or unwilling to respond with appropriate force. Democracy is under direct attack, they say, as Republicans change election rules and the Supreme Court rapidly rewrites American law. Shooting sprees are routine, abortion rights have ended and Democrats could suffer big losses in the next election....

“There is a leadership vacuum right now, and he’s not filling it,” said Adam Jentleson, a Democratic consultant and former top adviser to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada. “I sympathize with the argument that there’s very little they can do legislatively. But in moments of crisis, the president is called upon to be a leader. And when people are feeling scared and angry and outraged, they look to him for that, and they’re not getting much.”

From Politico:

One man declared himself “furious.” The other was solemn. One insisted that Americans “be angry.” The other touted recent reforms already done.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and President Joe Biden both watched in horror as a mass shooting left seven people dead and wounded dozens more at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park. But their responses in the hours after the July 4 massacre were diametrically different, reflecting not just a divergence in temperaments but of their political approaches to the issue of gun violence in America....

“[Biden's] missing the boat here. This is our time to dig in and be absolutely furious because these one-half measures are not working. He’s got a real excitability problem,” said Camille Rivera, a Democratic strategist and partner at the progressive firm New Deal Strategies. “Our rights are being infringed upon and then there were two shootings [another in Philadelphia] on the exact day that people are supposed to be celebrating their ‘independence.’ I really don’t understand where this passivity comes from in this situation.”

From CNN:

Top Democrats complain the President isn't acting with -- or perhaps is even capable of -- the urgency the moment demands.

"Rudderless, aimless and hopeless" is how one member of Congress described the White House.

I think this is genuine exasperation, at a time when Democrats are extremely worried about the midterms. But I also believe it's working as a message for the midterms, whether it's intended to or not: Don't vote GOP in November, Democratic voters, and don't stay home. We agree with you that someone needs to step up and do something, even if Joe Biden doesn't.

Biden's poll numbers continue to be much worse than his party's. At FiveThirtyEight, Biden's job disapproval is 17.3 points lower than his job approval, and it's steadily getting worse, while the GOP's lead on the generic ballot question has narrowed to 1.6, from a high of 5.6 last summer. At Real Clear Politics, Biden is at -18.9 while the Democrats are at -2 on the generic ballot, down from -6.7 last summer and -4.8 in April. And there's that Quinnipiac poll in Georgia showing Raphael Warnock up by 10 over Herschel Walker, while Biden is at -27.

I have a soft spot for Biden, but Democrats need to do this to prevent the GOP from doing much more harm to the country. Many Democrats are genuinely at odds with Biden about the president's approach to politics. If saying so out loud helps the party in November, then why not do it?