CNN: Most Voters Say "No Chance" They'll Support Biden - Is this the most underreported story in politics?

Large media organizations have been telling Americans for nearly a decade
about "Never Trump" voters, and surely there are a lot of them. But perhaps
such voters are not quite as numerous as the "Never Biden" folks, who have
received comparatively little attention.

Perhaps this is starting to change. "Among all voters, Biden remains at a bit
of a disadvantage relative to Trump in terms of the share of voters who have
ruled out voting for him: 52% say there's no chance they would support him,
while 47% say there's no chance they would back Trump," Jennifer Agiesta
reports for CNN.

To this point, standard courtesy among establishment media is to acknowledge
Mr. Biden's unacceptability to a broad swath of voters only in the context of
a story that also notes Mr. Trump's unpopularity and concludes that voters
are just unhappy with their options. And certainly they are. But Mr. Trump is
frequently permitted to appear in stories entirely devoted to his
shortcomings.

Regardless of the quality of coverage, it is the accuracy of polling that is
probably top of mind at the White House. If the CNN results are accurate, how
can Democrats craft a strategy for winning an election in which most voters
have ruled out the idea of voting for Mr. Biden?

Ms. Agiesta has more on the network's latest opinion survey:

Donald Trump continues to hold an advantage over President Joe Biden
as the campaign - and the former president's criminal trial - move
forward, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. And in the
coming rematch, opinions about the first term of each man vying for
a second four years in the White House now appear to work in Trump's
favor, with most Americans saying that, looking back, Trump's term as
president was a success, while a broad majority says Biden's has so
far been a failure.

Trump's support in the poll among registered voters holds steady at
49% in a head-to-head matchup against Biden, the same as in CNN's
last national poll on the race in January, while Biden's stands at
43%, not significantly different from January's 45%.

Looking back, 55% of all Americans now say they see Trump's
presidency as a success, while 44% see it as a failure. In a January
2021 poll taken just before Trump left office and days after the
January 6 attack on the US Capitol, 55% considered his time as
president a failure.

Assessing Biden's time in office so far, 61% say his presidency thus
far has been a failure, while 39% say it's been a success.

Perhaps the political operatives in the crowd can opine on whether they would
rather be in a campaign that inspires a slight majority of voters to say
they'll never vote for the candidate or one in which a large majority regard
him as a failure.

One option for the White House is to attempt a reputational beating of CNN's
pollsters until morale improves among Democrats. After all, polling is an
inexact science--if it's even a science--and Team Biden could attack the CNN
survey as an "outlier" of questionable accuracy. The White House tried this
approach with the Quinnipiac poll in 2022. Alternatively, the White House
could hope that CNN staff will start publicly questioning their own results,
as the Washington Post did last fall when its polling yielded more bad news
for Team Biden.

Another option is to take the CNN results at face value and try to persuade
Never-Biden voters to change their minds. But this would probably require Mr.
Biden to make a public case for his candidacy, perhaps even subjecting
himself to unscripted discussion of the issues of the day.

This would represent a significant change in administration policy. On
Saturday at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Mr. Biden joked about his
media unavailability. Here's the official transcript:

Now, to all of my friends in the press -- and Fox News -- (laughter)
  -- some of you complain that I don't take enough of your questions. 
No comment.  (Laughter.)
 
Of course, the New York Times issued a statement blasting me for,
quote, "actively and effectively avoiding independent journalists."
 
Hey, if that's what it takes to get the New York Times to say I'm
active and effective, I'm for it.  (Laughter.)  It's okay.
 
I have... higher standards.  I do interviews with strong independent
journalists who millions of people actually listen to, like Howard
Stern.  (Laughter.)

Two years ago, in hopes of avoiding international catastrophe, this column
recommended that the president avoid public speaking--at least on important
issues--and especially if the remarks are not prepared in advance.

The White House has largely adopted this policy, but this column's suggestion
was only intended as a stopgap measure until a communicative and coherent
president could take office. At the time it seemed fanciful that Mr. Biden
would serve still another term.

If the CNN poll is accurate, most voters have already decided that he should
not.

--
Let's go Brandon!