Senior Democrats are quietly knifing him in off-the-record briefings, but are queuing up to profess their loyalty in public. It is a wretched affair, reminiscent of the way cowardly Republicans kow-towed for years to Donald Trump while privately claiming to despise him.
Aiding his staying power, Biden was in his element in Washington last night as host of the 75th anniversary Nato summit and boasting about how the alliance is stronger than it has ever been. At least, God forbid, he hasn’t had to endure the G7 jet lag that supposedly did him in at the CNN debate. Soon, attention will switch 24/7 to the looming Trump circus — the Republican convention which opens in Wisconsin on Monday. No wonder Biden thinks the revolt of the “elites” (as, pace Trump, he now calls his critics) is over and that he will be the Democratic nominee for president, come what may.
Yet a few clumsy gaffes could send his campaign into a death spiral. Arguably, it is already beyond recovery. In Wisconsin, Trump has pulled ahead of Biden by 44 to 38 points (with Robert F Kennedy Jr on nine) and is significantly ahead in all the important swing states. We know Biden feels relaxed about giving the election his best shot and losing — as he told his MSNBC pals, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, at the start of this week — but 50 per cent of American voters remain opposed to Trump and have no interest in appeasing Biden’s monumental vanity.
This story is from the July 10, 2024 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 10, 2024 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Versatile Gomes could be the missing piece of England midfield puzzle
OF THE four newcomers in the squad, no player signifies the start of Lee Carsley's new England revolution more so than Angel Gomes.
I'M READY TO GO DISTANCE WITH SINNER'
DRAPER HAS PLENTY LEFT IN THE LOCKER FOR HIS BLOCKBUSTER US OPEN SEMI AGAINST WORLD Not
Pope needs strong finish after good start takes worrying dip
THE OVAL Test so often feels like the end of something, but that is not really the sense as this summer of red-ball renewal draws towards a close.
The manager has exciting new ideas and beliefs - now I want the chance to show him what I can do
IT MUST have been an occasionally frustrating summer for Jarrod Bowen, who initially looked poised to be a key player for England at Euro 2024 before having to watch their strange tournament unfold from the sidelines.
Lloyd's profits hit £4.9bn for half year as prices rise
LLOYD’S of London, one of the City’s most significant financial institutions, reported a sharp rise in half-year profits today in a boost for the Square Mile.
What Londoners really want in bed (it's not what you think)
GEN Z are having the same amount of sex as baby boomers, BDSM is on the rise and a whopping number of millennials are open to polyamory, according to a new report into sex habits by the Kinsey Institute, in partnership with dating app Feeld.
Seven years on, the scandal of cladding still shames us
A S Britain absorbs the second phase of the report into the Grenfell Tower inferno, with its accumulation of horrors, an event last week serves as warning and a rebuke to the pace with which we have got here.
Is Gen Z to blame for the horror show of carbonara in a can? Oh, do give over
THERE won’t be historians in the future — only conspiracy theorists — but if there were, you might expect them to pinpoint the downfall of civilisation to last week, when Heinz announced it had put spaghetti carbonara in a can (spoiler: it’s a disaster). Heinz says this is all Gen Z’s fault, because the lazy sods can’t be bothered to cook.
Our glorious Paralympics is no fluke at all
IT’S been an incredible Paralympic Games and I’ve loved watching all of the action whether it be on the track, on the court, in the water or the arena.
Bowie in Berlin: how the German city changed him
Anew radio show explores how David Bowie disappeared into the city to reinvent himself. Dylan Jones has a first listen