Calls for Joe Biden not to run raise an age-old question we all face eventually

It's high anxiety time for the party of President Joe Biden, although that's hardly a novel condition for Democrats.

- Clarence Page

Only a year before the 2024 election, the latest nervousness stems from a recent poll that finds Biden trailing Donald Trump in five of the six most important battleground states.

"And what makes these poll numbers particularly shocking," as comedian Sarah Silverman said while guest hosting on "The Daily Show," "is that the man Biden is losing to is currently on trial in every jurisdiction in America." Well, not quite. Trump only faces 91 criminal indictments, along with legal challenges under the 14th Amendment questioning his ability to run again for office.

But misgivings about the likely Republican nominee's court fights appeared to be largely overcome by worries about Biden's age and his handling of the economy, according to the poll by The New York Times and Siena College.

The results show Biden losing to Trump by margins of 4-10 percentage points among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania all states that Biden won in 2020.