Two-thirds of Dems want Biden out of the race now

The cracks beneath US President Joe Biden’s feet continue to widen.

While the shock of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump seemed as if it might relieve some of the pressure on Biden, the story of his viability as both president and candidate continues to feed on itself.

Ever since his disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27, the 81-year-old incumbent has been dogged by relentless questions about whether he should be running for a second term as the Democratic nominee.

And this week the pressure has continued to mount. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of the most senior members of the party, “forcefully made the case” for Biden to step aside in a one-on-one conversation, according to reports. (Schumer’s spokesperson has called the reporting “idle speculation”.) Another top Democrat, Adam Schiff, has publicly called for him to exit the race, as well.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the White House announced that the president has Covid.

It is all getting very hard to watch.

Biden and his team need to realize there is no way for him to allay these concerns over his decline – simply because he cannot get younger. He cannot prove he is not too old because he is too old.

As such, there is no good way for Biden and his campaign to approach the problem – it is, largely, unsolvable. And it is hard to refrain from arguing that the efforts of the president and his surrogates to persuade the public he is still a viable candidate have only made things worse.

A growing sense of betrayal

Biden and his team have blamed his debate performance on a cold and the effects of jet lag from an overseas trip 12 days earlier. But if a president is hit so hard by a mere cold and jet lag, of