Guys, this is not a joke. This is a REAL headline from The New York Times.
Ross Douthat is the Times' CONSERVATIVE op-ed writer.
Yes, The New York Times' primary conservative author is having a tough time figuring out why Americans are unhappy with President Joe Biden.
This has created mystification among Democratic partisans as to why all this isn't enough to give the president a decent polling lead. I don't share that mystification. But I do think there's real uncertainty about which of the forces dragging on Biden's approval ratings matter most.
Douthat wanders through the issues, talking about inflation and the general gloom hanging over Americans, concluding that the Democrats need to convince Americans that Biden is actually alive.
...all Democrats can do is ask Biden to show more public vigor, with all the risks that may entail.
He says that a "decrepit-seeming president" isn't likely to turn things around or inspire hope, and while that's true, the reason Americans dislike Joe is so much bigger.
In case the NYT needs a refresher:
According to Douthat, the economy is doing okay compared to Obama's at this point in time.
There's no recession, right?
Douthat theorizes that maybe it's the wokeness that's the problem. Yeah, maybe that's hurting Biden.
Or maybe he's just not a good guy?
Why don't the American people like Joe's "devout-Catholic" positions on abortion?
Or the way he uses the government to attack his political enemies and destroy their lives?
While letting his favored allies off the hook:
Maybe it's all that corruption?
Why don't we like that the dude is named "Pedo Peter" in his hooker-addicted son's phone, or that his daughter blames her own sexual issues on the showers she used to take with him as a kid?
But Douthat just comes back to age: Maybe Joe Biden's just too old...
Or maybe the big problem is just simmering anxiety about Biden's age. Maybe his poll numbers dipped first in the Afghanistan crisis because it showcased the public absenteeism that often characterizes his presidency. Maybe some voters now just assume that a vote for Biden is a vote for the hapless Kamala Harris. Maybe there's just a vigor premium in presidential campaigns that gives Trump an advantage.
No doubt his age matters. But that's not it.
Joe Biden continually proves himself as the worst, least sympathetic, most vindictive, most corrupt, and most out-of-touch president in the history of the country.
That, New York Times, is why Joe Biden is unpopular.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
