Polls have shown that Democratic voters have wanted an alternative to Biden since well before the 2022 midterm elections (elections in which, it’s worth noting, his party outperformed expectations and historical norms). Despite this, a long roster of rising Democrats has declined to run against the sitting president, ceding the challenge to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a conspiratorial loon who realized how little Democrats wanted him and switched to an independent bid, and Representative Dean Phillips, who managed to be even less attractive to voters than Biden, even though the president wasn’t on the ballot in New Hampshire.