The President trails Trump in five of six battleground states in a new survey. TV ads focused on his legal troubles backfired, so they never aired. Trump’s polling lead is probably real, but so was Mitt Romney’s in November 2011. Yes, the Democrats have a problem, but it is so early many comparisons can be found that make these early polling results meaningless. But, they are so surprising to the media and the Democrat establishment, that it is bringing out, in public, the 'dump Biden' crowd.

• David Axelrod questions wisdom of President Biden running again. 
• Biden is facing a backlash from within the party over his support for Israel as it conducts a ferocious counterattack inside the Gaza Strip. A series of Democratic lawmakers have called for a ceasefire, including prominent progressive Reps. Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.

The media also is showing its colors in public:

• Ruth Marcus: I have to confess to a massive failure of imagination — or perhaps a willful need to believe otherwise — but I never thought, when Trump left office, that we would be back in the position in which we find ourselves now: that he is poised to become the GOP nominee and has a more than decent shot at being elected president.
• Megan McArdle: Unfortunately, I fear that the answer to “What now?” lies somewhere between chaos and despair.

Ms Marcus may be right on 'a failure of imagination'. The Democrats & their media allies were and remain in full denial that they have not destroyed Trump. They believe they have destroyed him against all evidence to the contrary. That self-important optimism is a consistent trait with the media. So much so that they believe their own made up political narratives and ignore the mood of the people. They tell themselves that Bidenomics is working (the country knows it is not), they paint Republican economic plans with the tired and false narrative, tax breaks for the wealthy (the public remembers how good the economy & foreign policy was under Trump) and they try to deflect from the national outcry over school curriculum (CRT & radical gender programs) with a threat that a Trump administration will cut funding for education. The media believes they can control the mood of the people with misinformation, they have done it before. They can tell them how to think. Or, maybe this time, the media have gone one step too far and the American public are aware of the deception being played on them. Bottom line remains, the election is a year out.  We will see things during this year that we have never seen before in a Presidential election.  Even more unusual than COVID in 2020.  Wear a seat belt and helmet for this one folks. More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required): More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required): More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required):