Biden’s Struggles Abound as Ukraine Prevails and Other Noteworthy Analysis

2024 race: Biden Is Flailing

The latest CNN poll shows that even 70% of Democrats “have serious concerns about whether Biden . . . is up to the job of president” and 67% “want a different candidate,” one reason almost every major GOP candidate could beat him in “a head-to-head 2024 match up,” notes the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. When “the pollsters measured Biden against all of his major Republican would-be challengers,” they “found that, while all the scenarios were close, the president could defeat only one of them — Vivek Ramaswamy — and then by just a single point.” Nikki Haley had the biggest lead, 49% to Biden’s 43%, a sign that word of her “strong performance” in the first GOP debate “is spreading in ways that were not measured in the quickie polls.”

Schools beat: Closures Fed Parent Revolt

Contra White House claims, President Biden’s actions to reopen schools in early 2021 “were hardly ‘swift,’ ” fumes Ingrid Jacques at USA Today. “His goal to fully open schools within his first 100 days quickly fizzled” as teachers unions “played an outsized role in dictating health and policy guidelines that kept schools shuttered far longer than necessary.” Now “parents have newfound power in the wake of the COVID shutdowns” — and they’re “taking action when they don’t like what their children’s school is doing.” “Whether it’s decisions related to COVID or what schools are teaching, parents are no longer sitting on the sidelines.” They’re expanding “school choice,” pushing “academics” and “defending their values.” “Parents should remember what they’ve learned the past few years and keep fighting for their kids.”

Libertarian: Students Reject Free Speech

The new Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression survey found that, even on campuses that protect free speech, many “have student bodies that aren’t quite so tolerant,” reveals Reason’s Emma Camp. “Only one-third of college students say it’s never acceptable to shout down a controversial campus speaker. And one-quarter think using violence can be acceptable in at least some circumstances to stop someone from speaking on campus.” Of 55,000-plus students, 71% “agreed that a college ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ should not allow a speaker on campus who previously expressed the idea that ‘Black Lives Matter is a hate group.’ ” This “illustrates how difficult it is to change student’s attitudes toward free speech” even when the school is sound.

War watch: How Ukraine Wins

“The US and NATO need to give [President Volodymyr] Zelensky and his generals their due” and “modify and strengthen their support to Ukraine’s fight” to ensure that Ukraine beats Russia, argue Jonathan Sweet & Mark Toth at The Hill. “The Russian way of fighting — mass — is succumbing to the Ukrainian way” of challenges on multiple fronts and including behind Russia’s frontline. Ukraine’s on the verge of at least one major breakthrough. But “winning the close fight — the main effort — will not win the war if Ukraine cannot exploit the breakthrough.” “Unless the next tranche of aid translates into a precision deep strike capability — namely ATACMS, an expedited F-16 pilot training and fielding plan, cluster munitions for its rockets, more artillery and engineering assets — Ukraine will be forced to continue fighting its own deliberate timeline.”

Eye on NY: A Green Waste Disaster

“Within 25 years New York will find itself trying to manage the disposal of five million or more waste solar panels every year,” reports the Empire Center’s James E. Hanley. Yet the state “has no plan” to manage it. Current methods: Export them and their “numerous toxic metals” to developing countries.” Stateside, they can go to “hazardous waste landfills,” but often don’t. “Most counties that operate landfills” say they have no “policies at all concerning the disposal of waste solar panels.” Recycling would cost “as much as $135 million per year” — and “much of the non-recoverable materials in solar panels” are “often incinerated after recycling.” So pols need a real “plan to handle” NY’s green waste.

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board