"Biden's 2024 Chances Are Much Stronger Than People Realize" - My MSNBC Op-Ed

As We Head Into 2024, In Every Way Possible, I Would Much Rather Be Us Than Them

Friends,

Sending along a link to my new op-ed on the MSNBC site, “Biden’s 2024 Chances Are Much Stronger Than People Realize.” The essay is a new articulation of our basic take on 2024:

Joe Biden is a good President. The country is better off. The Democratic Party is strong and winning elections across the US. And they have Trump.

Here’s an excerpt:

First, President Joe Biden has kept his central promise in the 2020 election: that he would lead the nation to the other side of Covid, successfully. The pandemic has receded. Our economic recovery has been better than any other G7 nation. GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.9% last quarter, and more than 3% for the Biden presidency. We have the best job market since the 1960s and the lowest uninsured rate in U.S. history. The Dow Jones broke 37,000 this month for the first time. Wage growth, new business formation and prime-age labor participation rates are all at historically elevated levels. Prices fell — yes, fell — last month. Rents are softening, and gas prices and crime rates are falling. Domestic oil and renewable production are at record levels. The annual deficit, which exploded under Trump, is trillions less today. 

Consumer sentiment has risen sharply in recent weeks, and measures of life, job and income satisfaction are remarkably high. There is no doubt that recent years have been hard — Covid, an insurrection at the Capitol, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, repeated OPEC price hikes, global and domestic inflation — but it is increasingly clear that America is getting to the other side of this challenging period, and are in a far better place than when President Biden took office. 

Second, the strength of the president’s record is only matched by the strength of his party. I don’t think it is widely understood how strong the Democratic Party is right now. The party has won more votes in seven of the past eight presidential elections, something no party has done in modern American history. Over the last four presidential elections, Democrats have averaged 51% of the popular vote, their best showing over four national elections since the 1930s.

In both 2022 and 2023, Democrats prevented the historical down ballot struggle of the party in power and had two remarkably successful elections. In the 2022 midterms, Democrats’ statewide margins were greater than the 2020 presidential margins in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — all recent battleground states. That showing led the party to pick up a Senate seat, four state legislative chambers and two governorships, and helped keep the House of Representatives close, making it far more likely Republicans lose it in 2024. 

The piece also includes my recent “Dems are kicking ass” interview I did with Lawrence O’Donnell right after the November election. Last night Lawrence aired a new interview with me, looking ahead to 2024. Here’s an excerpt:

Please review the op-ed, watch these fun MSNBC interviews, share with others and let me know what you think. I’ve left the comments section open to everyone.

For space reasons I did not address recent polling in this op-ed, but I discuss how much better the polling has been for Biden and the Democrats and why I am not worried in this recent post, A Positive, Upbeat Close for Joe Biden and the Democrats. We are ending 2023 strong everyone and I am deeply optimistic about our chances next year - if we do the work, together.

While I got you on this holiday break week, a few other things:

• My year end message and spreading Hopium in 2024

• Growth and Expansion - Supporting Suozzi/Keen/North Carolina - The FL HD-35 special election is January 16th - please take action today!

• Trump and MAGA’s Historical Awfulness Matters

• Hopium Winter Break Homework - Watch “With Democrats, Things Get Better”

Rest up peeps - we have a big election to win next year - Simon