As the general election is set to begin, there is a new protagonist in American politics: not the man seeking to take back the White House as retribution but its current, outwardly placid occupant. ![President Joe Biden gives a speech near Valley Forge]()
Super Tuesday has come and gone, putting an effective end to what the staff writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells identifies asa Presidential primary with high stakes but virtually no urgency. “What has been billed as a decisive fight for democracy is taking place within a hazy zone of disinterest,” he writes. “Amid this indifference, and perhaps partly because of it, Donald Trump is winning.” The former President has barely campaigned, yet he begins the next phase of the election with a polling lead over President Biden—a small edge in national surveys, and a stronger one in the swing states. Running for a second term, Biden is an unusual incumbent, a seemingly reluctant political protagonist who needs to capture the attention of voters. “Since early in his Presidency, it has often seemed as if Biden is driving through a reputational sludge,” Wallace-Wells writes. “Everything is harder for him.” Biden needs to jolt his supporters and win back those who say they are prepared to abandon him—and these next few weeks could be critical. In case you missed it:President Biden recently sat down with the staff writer Evan Osnosfor a rare Oval Office interview. “If you spend time with Biden these days,” Osnos writes, “the biggest surprise is that he betrays no doubts.” | 
