37%

Hello, I hope that your Holiday Season is off to a great start! 
 
I was on CNN last week talking about the collapsing support for President Biden in the recent polls.  The numbers are stunning. 
 
Biden’s approval rating has plummeted to 37% in several recent polls.  His approval rating is lower than any other President at this point in history.  And everyone else even close to him went on to lose. 

Credit:  Tom Leung / Nerds for Humanity 

Bloomberg has Biden down 10 points to Trump in Michigan, a key swing state that Biden won in 2020.  The same poll has Biden’s deficit at 5 points in Georgia, another key swing state.  A poll in Minnesota has the result within the margin of error; this is a state that Joe Biden won by 7 points in 2020 and isn’t even considered a swing state.  If Joe Biden has to spend money and energy shoring up a place like Minnesota, that’s a disaster.  Pew has Joe Biden’s approval rating nationwide at a shocking 33%.

2 months ago, you would say, “Okay, this is going to be a close election,  maybe 50-50.”  Now, it is very difficult to look at these numbers and say anything other than, if the election were to be held tomorrow, Trump would be the prohibitive favorite to win.  Trump is also rolling through the Republican primary. 
 
So, is a turnaround for Joe Biden in the offing?  There are a number of reasons that suggest it won’t be. 
 
First, the trend right now is clearly negative.  Biden’s numbers are slumping and disintegrating in real time.  People are increasingly fed up. 
 
Second, the Biden campaign spent $25 million on an advertising campaign intended to buck up his numbers in the swing states.  The effect?  Zero.  This is not a situation that an advertising campaign can fix. 
 
Third, the President is 81 years old.  I am regularly seeing videos of his latest verbal stumbles in my social media feed despite not looking for them.  It is very difficult to reinvent grandpa.  You can’t just send him out to do some friendly interviews and hope people are reminded of why they liked him.  He’s different in 2024 than he is in 2020. 
 
Fourth, on some level, voters believe Joe Biden is making a selfish decision by running again and are holding it against him.  His strength is that he’s a good man and loves this country.  But his decision to run again seems to be putting his own ego ahead of the country’s interests, particularly in light of his recent statement that “There are 50 Democrats who could defeat Trump.” 
 
He’s right.  This is the opposite of his campaign in 2020, when he said essentially, “I’m the only one who can defeat Trump.” 
 
Now, 4 years later, he is probably the weakest candidate.  He’s gone from being the best candidate against Trump to the worst. 
 
Last week I publicly asked Joe Biden to step aside and let a real primary play out.  In my view, conscientious Americans who don’t want a Trump return should be supporting Dean Phillips, the only elected official who has decided to run against Biden for the sake of the country.  The best hope to defeat Trump is to field the strongest possible nominee. 
 
Indeed, the same polls that have Joe losing to Trump by several points have a generic Democrat defeating Trump by 8 points.  Imagine if Trump were running against a sane, positive 54-year old Democrat like Dean; all of a sudden voters would rejoice that they had a genuine choice.  It would feel refreshing, particularly against a candidate like Trump.    
 
New Hampshire votes on January 23rd – I believe that if they know they have an option in Dean Phillips, they will jump on it.  Zach Graumann, who most of you know as my campaign manager, has already joined Dean’s campaign.  It’s going to be a busy month.  And a ton is riding on waking voters up to a better option than sleepwalking into disaster. 
 
To check out the Dean Phillips campaign, click here.  To help cure our political system check out Forward – we are having a big year-end online event tonight.