Though it’s still over two years away, Democrats are beginning to panic over the 2024 presidential election.
A humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, an ongoing war in Ukraine, an economy plagued by inflation, astronomical energy prices and a practically defenseless southern border have sunk President Joe Biden’s approval numbers. He’s somewhere in the low 40s — close to where former President Donald Trump stood at the nadir of his tenure.
“Everyone needs to come to terms with the reality that we’re going to get slaughtered in November,” an anonymous Democratic strategist told The Hill. “That’s a fact. His polling has gotten worse not better. It’s indicative of the fact that people have lost confidence in his leadership. There’s nothing they’re going to be able to do.”
“You’ve got an imperative here that requires the Democrats to deliver. Their survival depends on it,” former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told The Atlantic.
Meanwhile, the corporate media continues to live in deep denial that Biden’s presidency just hasn’t panned out like they hoped.
The Washington Post published a list of the top 10 Democratic candidates for 2024, and, as might be expected from the Post, it’s filled with has-beens and bozos.
Given the fact that Gavin Newsom, his only achievement is turning California into an inhospitable hellscape, and Cory “Spartacus” Booker made the list, one might be forgiven for initially thinking the list is a joke, but, alas, someone actually thinks either of these two would make a good president.
There are only four women on the list (tsk, tsk WaPo), and none of them inspire any confidence. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ranked number 10, is so reviled by conservatives that her candidacy would all but guarantee a historic Republican turnout. Elizabeth Warren, 4, and Amy Klobuchar, 5, failed hard in 2020 despite glowing media coverage.
Kamala Harris was ranked number 3, but her stint as vice president has arguably been a bigger disaster than Biden’s turn at the presidency. She’s been AWOL in her position as border czar since she received the position in March 2021, and the administration had to repeatedly assure the American public that Harris was not being entrusted to make deals during her visit to Poland in March.
She also can’t seem to keep any of her staff — her chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, national security adviser and senior adviser have all bowed out after less than a year and a half. If the people closest to Harris can’t wait to get away from her, how does the Democratic Party expect the American people to react when she’s on the ballot?
Pete Buttigieg beat out Harris for the runner-up spot, despite his utter incompetence at handling the ongoing supply chain crisis. Let’s not forget, Buttigieg was conspicuously missing from his job as transportation secretary during the only time in the last twenty years when his job has actually mattered.
Biden himself snags the top spot in complete denial of his almost daily failures and his ongoing battle with the English language.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown represents a relatively sane choice, coming in at #7, but his candidacy might hit a few snags. If Trump faces off against Brown in 2024, the senator might face the humiliation of losing his home state. Ohio has turned bright red in the last eight years — Trump won it by around eight points in both 2016 and 2020. For comparison, Trump won Texas by only five points in 2020 and by nine points in 2016.
Brown was also elected to the Senate in 2012 and reelected in 2018 — both years that saw Democratic gains in Congress.
The Democrats’ only real hope in 2024, barring a dark horse, is the man who comes in at #6 on WaPo’s list — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
North Carolina has become one of the most vital swing states over the last decade. After the 2020 Census, it now has 16 electoral votes, compared to Ohio’s 17, and Cooper has won twice during election years that saw Republicans win the other two important statewide races.
Trump won the state in 2016 by a little over three points, but won the state by less than two in 2020. Republican Sen. Richard Burr beat his Democratic opponent Deborah Ross by almost six points in 2016, and his colleague Thom Tillis beat challenger Cal Cunningham by 1.8%.
Both of those Senate victories came in election years when Republicans lost seats in the chamber. North Carolina, while definitely still a swing state, has been kind to Republicans in critical elections — except in the case of the governorship.
Cooper increased his margin of victory from 0.2 points in 2016 to four and a half in 2020.
When it comes to approval ratings, Cooper’s in the middle of the pack, 52% approval, but any of his potential rivals in the 2024 Democratic primary would kill for that approval rating.
Perhaps most importantly, Cooper comes across as the kind of moderate, normal Democrat that Biden claimed he would be during his inaugural address in 2021.
He signed the STOP Act, a law overhauling state regulations on prescribing and distributing opioids, in 2017 and was appointed by Trump to the president’s commission to fight the opioid epidemic. He also signed several tough-on-crime bills aimed at domestic violence. Cooper declared a state of emergency during the COVID pandemic and enacted restrictions on gatherings, but he did not follow the lead of more radical Democratic governors and keep them in place long after they became unnecessary.
Democrats have a pretty sorry lineup taking shape for 2024. Their prospects are an octogenarian whose grip on reality seems to slip a little more each day, a vice president so intensely dislikable her own staff is running for the hills and a gaggle of losers and cynical opportunists.
But Roy Cooper, if he sticks to his current strategy, might present a sane alternative for middle-of-the-road Americans tired of woke pandering on the left and election conspiracy theories on the right.
Hayden Daniel is the opinion editor at the Daily Caller.