Anguish about Joe Biden’s candidacy is rational, polls suggest

Mr Biden did not elaborate on what exactly those more sympathetic polls show. But the public ones suggest that on average the president’s polling deficit has increased by 1.7 points since the debate. That sounds modest, but Mr Trump’s lead now equals the largest he has had in any of his three presidential campaigns. Such a small shift is possible to detect only because pollsters have consistently asked the public for their views on Messrs Trump and Biden, who have both campaigned as the presumptive presidential nominees for about four months. Unfortunately for Democrats who would like to identify the most electable alternative to Mr Biden, recent polls offer few clear answers.