Democrats need to realize that there is no alternative to Biden – and buck up | Sidney Blumenthal

Spooked by Trump's shadow, Democrats react with disapproval of Biden, whose numbers are stagnant. They risk creating a self-fulfilling prophesy

Now ends our summer of discontent. Nearly half of Democrats fretfully tell pollsters that President Biden is too old". Fifty-eight percent of all Americans, including 30% of Democrats, do not approve of his handling of the economy. Twenty-one percent of Democrats rate him unfavorably. If these discontented were to change their opinion, his favorability would be near or above 50%. Depressed Democrats hold down his standing.

Biden returns from the G20 economic conference in India triumphant, conducting complex diplomacy edging out China, and heralding a host of deliverables, notably a deal to build a rail and shipping network from India to Europe and the Middle East, running through Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, a game-changing regional investment", he declares. He follows with an unprecedented pact with Vietnam as a strategic partner. Then at his press conference he wanders into a monologue about a John Wayne western and one of Biden's favored expressions, a lying dog-faced pony soldier", to refer to disbelievers in the climate crisis.

Sidney Blumenthal is the author of The Permanent Campaign, published in 1980, and All the Power of the Earth: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860, the third of a projected five volumes. He is the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton