This isn't really news, unless the news is that Biden is sentient.

Or is this the news: Biden is a weak leader, bereft of ideas, capable only of "frustration" when met with an important challenge? 

Obviously, the poll numbers are "dismal," and anyone in his position would feel bad about it. Why is this news? I expect my readers to be gearing up to opine that the news outlet in question — The Washington Post — is simply executing its own plan to induce Biden to give up running for reelection.

Let's read the article — "Biden said to be increasingly frustrated by dismal poll numbers/In one recent meeting he said poll numbers were unacceptably low and he wanted to know what his team and his campaign were doing about it." I'm just noticing that subheadline. It's hilarious (or tragic).

This is the top story at WaPo right now, but what's newsworthy (as opposed to stating the obvious)?

On Sunday night, the president and the first lady stopped by the campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington, Del., to have dinner with campaign staff.... The president, in brief remarks, told his staff that the election was bigger than him.... When leaving the offices, Biden told reporters who asked why he was losing to Trump in the polls that people were reading “the wrong polls.”

Publicly, Biden campaign officials and Democratic allies have downplayed the polls, telling supporters to largely ignore them. They argue the election is still almost a year away and polls are not predictive of the results, but rather a snapshot of the current moment. They say most voters are not paying attention to the election yet, and the polls will change once the race becomes a clear choice between Biden and Trump....

“The Republican primary could end quickly, and the general election could begin in weeks, not months,” said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist. “Given Trump’s noisiness and his ability to bully his way through the daily information wars, I think it’s really important that the Biden campaign move into general election mode as soon as possible. We’re not where we want to be. Some of our coalition is wandering and we need to go get them back.”...

So there's the idea that Biden has an "election mode," and he hasn't been using it yet. Maybe there's an old-timey idea that nothing can be done during "the holidays." In that view, Biden may break out into election mode in January.

Former congressman Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), who attended the president’s fundraiser in Philadelphia last week, said...  “I think a lot of activists feel that everyone they know is happy with the president.... They’re not understanding who is in the majority of the country that is dissatisfied and what to do to change their minds.... A lot of us are looking to the campaign for leadership....”

Looking to Biden — or just "the campaign" — for leadership? Biden says don't look at the polls but if you do and if they look bad, you're looking at the wrong polls. Those darned polls. They're so frustrating. 

Frustration does not strike me as a very presidential state of mind. Where's the leadership? Where's the substance? 

AND: No sooner did I publish this post than I saw a New York Magazine article on the same subject.

Let's read "The Alarming Calm of the Biden Campaign/Inside reelection HQ, the president’s aides feel confident that the 2024 race is totally under control":

One Friday morning in November, a handful of Joe Biden’s top aides gathered in a Sheraton conference room in Chicago. Alumni of Barack Obama’s first presidential bid... had rolled out of bed to hear the Biden campaign’s leaders detail the effort to get the president a second term....

It was, in the words of one Democrat present, an “Oh God moment.”... [M]ore than one told me they couldn’t shake the feeling that for a sophisticated crowd, what they were hearing — the high-level outline of the Biden plan — felt obvious. 

Another thought the Bidenites were starting to come across as “absurdly defensive.” 

One somewhat sideways best-case interpretation came from a former senior Obama strategist: Maybe the Biden aides didn’t feel it was the proper venue for a deeper dive precisely because they were facing so many the-sky-is-falling questions — a rationale of “I don’t need to be with all these fucking smart-asses telling me I’m doing everything wrong.”... 

While commentators and many strategists are aghast at Biden’s polling slide and desperate to see a course correction, the president’s aides at the White House and at reelection headquarters give every indication that they consider the election very much under control....

But one way to understand how Biden’s lieutenants can feel calm about his lack of enthusiastic support is that they can still win if Biden simply remains less objectionable than Trump to some plurality of the electorate that gets him to 270 votes. It’s worked before....

If the campaign has an unofficial motto, it might be “Calm the fuck down, trust the process, and vote for Joe Biden. One. More. Time.”... 

In April, the campaign-manager job went to Chávez Rodríguez [the granddaughter of] the legendary labor organizer Cesar Chavez.... [Asked about] Biden’s age. Chávez Rodríguez... highlight[ed] his experience, character, and work in “so many communities throughout the country.” Then, appearing to surprise herself, she paused. She’d just been reminded, she said, of a recent conversation with a tribal chairman. She looked stricken: “What the chairman said to me is ‘Joe Biden has turned 400 years of hurt into 400 years of hope.’” To my amazement, a trickle of tears fell from her eyes onto the conference-room table....

This is the campaign manager!