But Biden could never resist the limelight, and now he’s back to haunt the Democrats. Last week, he waded into two primaries, endorsing candidates who had worked for his 2024 campaign and who asked for his support this year. As Semafor’s David Weigel has observed, Biden nostalgia is also creeping into other races, particularly California’s cramped gubernatorial primary, where the ascendent Xavier Becerra regularly touts his service as Biden’s secretary of health and human services.
Biden, battered by post-pandemic inflation and hounded by concerns about his age and health, left office with an abysmal approval rating in the high 30s. To the extent that he’s seen a postpresidency bump, it’s mostly thanks to comparisons with his disastrous successor: 51 percent of voters told a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll that Trump was doing a worse job than his predecessor, compared to 49 percent who said he was doing better. Still, there isn’t exactly a mass reconsideration of Biden’s presidency underway: A Newsweek poll this month found just 44 percent of voters viewed him favorably.
Biden is unpopular—so what? Trump is the president now. Even if there were something to gain from relitigating 2024, the focus now is on the horrors the current administration is unleashing on a daily basis. With immigrants, LGBTQ people, protesters, judges, journalists, federal workers, and others under assault, plus trade wars and literal wars being waged around the world, there are far more pressing issues that demand Democrats’ attention in this midterm election cycle and beyond. The past is an afterthought, as it should be.
