The Democrats overperforming in the 2022 midterms may be the worst thing to happen to them in 2024. Up until election day, the whisper campaign against Joe Biden running again was in full swing. But once the dust from the midterms cleared, and the damage was limited to Florida and the House, Biden emerged as a nearly untouchable victor.

Untouchable, that is, except to the ravages of time, which come for us all. But don’t remind cranky Grandpa Joe of that fact.

The president has vented to allies about how often his age is mentioned in the press — “You think I don’t know how fucking old I am?” he said to one earlier this year. But who knows what the fates have in store for someone who just turned 80 a few weeks ago (Sorry, Mr. President!).”

Hmmm, that’s quite a potty mouth, but we already knew that Joe has always loved using an f-bomb when he wants, and he never had much of a filter when he was younger. Now that he is old, Biden is even crankier and snottier.

The White House kept Biden’s birthday a very quiet deal, which was made easier by holding a wedding at the White House that same weekend for his granddaughter. But when a sitting president has never turned 80 years old in office before, it gets noticed. But now that the midterms are over, and Trump is running again, it seems all but inevitable that Biden will be running for re-election.

And the media, after being temporarily cowed by the election results, is beginning their murmurs again. Donald Trump’s stock is not especially great even among Republicans right now, and media leftists can read a poll just as well as anyone else.

New numbers from Suffolk University/USA TODAY national poll of registered voters: pic.twitter.com/ztRGAW3j5N

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 14, 2022

By 2-1, GOP and GOP-leaning voters now say they want Trump’s policies but a different standard-bearer to carry them. While 31% want the former president to run, 61% prefer some other Republican nominee who would continue the policies Trump has pursued.”

They have a name in mind: Two-thirds of Republicans and those inclined to vote Republican want Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president. By double digits, 56% to 33%, they prefer DeSantis over Trump.”

“Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.”

Biden only works as a viable candidate so long as Trump – and ONLY Trump – is the Republican nominee. If not, the media and the Democrats know there is trouble ahead.

Yet Biden has repeatedly declined to say he’s running for reelection. That’s because, yes, he doesn’t want to trigger the Federal Election Committee, which may require him to file organizational paperwork if he was to say definitively he’s running. There’s also the more delicate matter of Biden continuing to say he’s “a respecter of fate” when asked about his plans.”

Further, if stopping Trump’s comeback and preserving democracy is the raison d’etre of Biden’s reelection, what’s the current president’s rationale if, by the start of 2024, it’s clear the former president isn’t a viable contender?”

And if Biden does run, will he pledge to serve a full second term?”

“I just hope and pray that when I am in my 80s I still have that kind of energy,” said Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), who witnessed Biden work a rope line when the president rallied for his reelection shortly before the midterms.”

That was about all Levin would say on whether it’s in the best interest of the country to have an 85-year-old president.”

He’s hardly alone among Democrats in not wanting to contemplate that far into the future.”

I find it mildly hilarious that Jonathan Martin, who wrote the above for POLITICO, wants some kind of pledge or guarantee that Biden will be able to serve out a second term. We have had presidents who haven’t lived out their FIRST terms due to illness or assassination, and yet here is Martin, asking “President Biden, if you run for president, will you promise not to die?” It’s desperately funny, emphasis on the desperate. There are no guarantees in this life, and Biden can no more promise not to die than any of the rest of us can. It’s just that his odds of doing so are greatly increased thanks to his age and his obvious frailty and decline.

“Which way do we go?”

Joe Biden is given stage directions by a small child. pic.twitter.com/yRLvNvfevM

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 12, 2022

The Democrats are stuck. They know Biden’s age is a huge problem for them, but now that the midterms are over, they find themselves stuck with the old man who needs a handler – or a child – to get him off a stage. Biden, who has always been arrogant and overestimated his own abilities, is unwilling to simply walk away from being president. Add in Jill, who apparently loves her level of control, and the human robot Kamala Harris, and Democrats are gritting their teeth and praying to a God they no longer believe in to keep Joe Biden alive for another five years. And if Donald Trump is not the nominee, but Joe Biden is? That’s even more trouble for them.

Welcome Instapundit Readers!

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click