Pan­ic or patience? The Democ­rats’ dilem­ma as Biden stum­bles out of the gate

Democ­rats have two choic­es about how to approach the 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion: pan­ic or patience.
For­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump leads Pres­i­dent Joe Biden in five of six bat­tle­ground states, accord­ing to the lat­est New York Times-Siena Col­lege poll. Trump leads in all sev­en in the Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics polling aver­age, which also has him ahead of Biden nation­al­ly.
If Trump’s nation­al lead holds, it would only be the sec­ond time since 1988 that Repub­li­cans have won the pop­u­lar vote. This time, that feat could con­ceiv­ably be achieved by a for­mer pres­i­dent who was vot­ed out of office four years ago who is still viewed unfa­vor­ably by an absolute major­i­ty of vot­ers in most polls.
The fact that the race is not only com­pet­i­tive but that Biden is los­ing, and has been los­ing in many polls for a while now, has to give Democ­rats pause. Trump is run­ning ahead of Repub­li­can Sen­ate can­di­dates in swing states like Neva­da and …