As a growing number of Democrat politicians openly distance themselves from Joe Biden, reports continue to surface of a behind-the-scenes plan to dump the most inept president in history well ahead of the 2024 election. Make no mistake: the Democrat Party is terrified by the prospect of Biden seeking reelection.

Bottom line: “It’s pretty clear that the left is organizing to dump Joe Biden.” So concludes political commentator and policy scholar, Powerline’s Steven Hayward. In an analysis titled Pincer Movement to Dump Biden Taking Place, Hayward went bottom-line from start to finish.

It’s pretty clear that the left is organizing to dump Joe Biden when it becomes evident that he’s a certain loser in 2024. Rather than waiting for a Ted Kennedy-like figure to challenge him in the 2024 primaries, which would likely doom Democrats to certain defeat, the left will need to push him out early, and clear the calendar for one or more Democrats to organize a serious presidential campaign.

Hang on. The Democrats (pundit checks notes) do not have a “Ted Kennedy-like figure” to challenge Biden. Worse, the Democrats don’t exactly have a deep bench, these days. And as noted by Hayward, “It goes without saying that the Democratic Party intelligentsia knows Kamala Harris is a hopeless candidate.”

Think about it through the eyes of a Democrat. I know: terrifying thought. Everywhere one looks, the evidence is overwhelming that Biden is cognitively lost on a daily basis, with nearly every new poll painting an ever-bleaker picture. Quite the pickle, isn’t it? Hey, play stupid games; win stupid prizes.

Hayward believes the Democrat “pincer movement” has three parts.

First, “We can expect a steady drumbeat of [left-leaning] media stories,” predicts Hayward, such as the latest from so-called mainstream political reporter Ronald Brownstein, whose latest op-ed, Is Biden a Man Out of Time?, makes clear that the media and the Democrat base remain just as clueless as Biden — wishing he would be even more radically leftist.

I’m no larger-than-life “very stable genius” Republican with a “very, very, big brain” and “good words,” (I couldn’t resist) but even I find it incredible that the Democrat state media and the socialist radicals within the Democrat Party fail to see that the majority of American adults overwhelmingly reject their so-called “progressive” push to destroy America and its valued institutions on as many fronts as possible.

In addition to the direct “reporting” about Biden’s problems, Hayward suggests there will be an increasing number of indirect attacks:

There will be indirect attacks about general failures of the administration. This week Politico ran a long piece about what a terrible press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is turning out to be. My theory is that she was picked to make Kamala Harris look good by comparison, but her failure at the job is so conspicuous that it can’t be papered over.

Speaking of Karine Jean-Pierre, as I previously suggested, she is so miserable at her job she makes Jen Psaki look like Dana Perino under George W. Bush. Perfect example: KJP recently laughed off a question from CNN host Don Lemon about Biden’s stamina and declining mental acuity.

The second part of the pincer movement, says Hayward, will be as I suggested in my opening paragraph: Democrat Party insiders will start publicly dumping on Biden. Last week it was David Axelrod, the architect of Barack Obama’s rise to power. In an appearance on CNN, Axelrod said “There is this sense that things are kind of out of control and he’s not in command.”

“Out of control”? Definitely. “Kind of”? Hardly. And we all know what “not in command” means.

Third, believes Hayward, as I have previously written, it won’t just be conservative writers who pull hamstrings rushing to “report” on Biden’s latest poll disaster.

Look for the pace of Bad-News-for-Biden polls to pick up in frequency and intensity. It becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop for party insiders like Axelrod and the media alike: every new poll gives them the opportunity to provide “analysis” that all points in the same direction.

Incidentally, the practice of running or commissioning a poll and then reporting the results as “news” is hardly new. Hayward pointed to the late historian Daniel Boorstin, who called the practice a pseudo-event, the definition of which is “not spontaneous; planted primarily, but not always exclusively, for the purpose of being reported or reproduced.” Bingo.

The bottom line:

As to the Democrat Party’s Biden problem, it could be clearer that the Republicans will have a golden opportunity to reclaim the White House in 2024.

While I have an uneasy feeling that Republican voters will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I’m also encouraged by the reality that an increasing number of conservatives continue to wake the hell up.