We knew this would happen. After a week in which Democrats won across the board, stunning everyone with their wins in Virginia and Ohio, Kristen Welker of Meet The Press is more interested in talking about ... Joe Biden's poll numbers! It's a compulsion! She just can't help herself.
"All right, let's talk about what happened this week. Mixed results for Democrats. On the one hand, Democrats had a very strong election night on Tuesday," Welker said.
Yes, Kristen, they did. They beat back Republicans rather soundly.
"On the other hand, there were a slate of troubling poll numbers for President Biden, which showed him trailing former President Trump in key battleground states. One Democrat described that to me as a “five-alarm fire.” Are you alarmed right now about the prospects of President Biden's reelection?"
"I'm actually not, because I don't see those as “mixed results,” Sen. Chris Murphy responded. (Because, you know, he's not a media suck-up like Kristen.)
"We don't choose a president based upon public opinion polling a year out. What matters in this country is Election Day. And over and over again, when voters turn out in elections, they are choosing Democrats. Why? Because we're talking about things that matter to people. How much money are they making? How much are they paying?
"Republicans are focused on things that don't matter. Regulating drag shows, trying to give guns back to criminals. These are things that fundamentally are completely divorced from where the American public are.
"And so I don't think these polls necessarily predict what the election a year from now is going to be. And I actually think when voters turn out to the polls, that's the sign of how strong the Democratic brand and President Biden's brand is today."
"When I talk to Democrats, one of the things they're most concerned about is that these polls show President Biden losing support in key groups among voters of colors, young voters, union voters as well. How does he win back their support?" she said.
(Notice how she keeps reinforcing the idea that these polls a year away from the election are legitimate -- based on the kind of people who still answer phone calls from strangers. The same polls that showed Obama losing a year out.)
"Well, continuing to talk about things that matter to those voters," Murphy said.
"Listen, I love President Biden taking a bold stand on the UAW strike. A lot of people, some of his advisors probably, told him not to go out there and get in the middle of a labor strike. But he did because he wants to show the American public, he wants to show middle-class voters, that he is going to take the side of workers, not corporate America, every single time when there's a fight. I think he needs to do more of that."
