It’s no secret — at least not to anyone who pays much mind to politics — that many in his own party don’t want to see President Joe Biden run for a second term. The reasons for this are painfully obvious: Even if one could excuse, or perhaps embrace, his counterproductive policy priorities and look past the brewing scandals, his age and readily apparent decline are becoming increasingly problematic.

Thus, it comes as little surprise that many top Democrats are strategizing as to how to replace Biden at the top of the ticket in 2024. While CNN characterizes the discussions as rather hush-hush, as though the maneuvering isn’t evident (and understandable). In a lengthy report titled “Slow pace of Biden’s reelection campaign feeds Democrats’ 2024 anxiety,” CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere lets the cat out of the bag: Despite the assurances by those on Team Biden that he is more than up to the challenge, there are doubters aplenty among his would-be allies.

The conversations keep happening – quiet whispers on the sidelines of events, texts, emails, furtive phone calls – as top Democrats and donors reach out to those seen as possible replacement presidential candidates.

Get ready, they urge, in conversations that aides to several of the people involved have described to CNN: Despite what he has said, despite the campaign that has been announced, President Joe Biden won’t actually be running for reelection.

They feel like time is already running out and that the lack of the more robust campaign activity they want to see is a sign that his heart isn’t really in it.

There’s a legit reason why the anxiety described in the report may be ratcheting up: The filing regarding his fundraising over the past few months is due for Biden on July 15th.

Concern over how it will be measured against the $86 million Barack Obama raised in the first few months after announcing his own reelection campaign in 2011, along with the slow pace of building out a campaign structure, is already feeding the latest round of frustration and worry described to CNN by almost two dozen current Biden aides, top Democratic operatives and donors, and alumni of other recent campaigns.

Some things are already clear: multiple big donors aren’t locking in. Grassroots emails are sometimes bringing in just a few thousand dollars.

Imagine how an anemic showing on the fundraising front will land for the Biden team. National polls may be handwaved away, particularly this early in the game, but bad fundraising numbers tend to beget bad fundraising numbers — no one wants to back a losing horse.

Thus, you have statements like these coming from “in the know” types:

“If Trump wins next November and everyone says, ‘How did that happen,’ one of the questions will be: what was the Biden campaign doing in the summer of 2023?” said a person who worked in a senior role on Biden’s 2020 campaign.

“I’m not sure which is harder: Getting people to focus on the campaign, or getting people excited about it,” a longtime Democratic fundraiser said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating a sensitive White House.

Additional points raised in the report:

• Blown deadlines and comparisons to the Obama reelection campaign
  Biden has famously blown through every political timeline he has set for himself over the past eight years, but for an incumbent putting together what he and supporters feel is a campaign that is existential for the country, many leading Democrats feel time is running shorter than ever.

…

• A ‘crapshoot’ election
  Some frustrated next generation Democratic operatives compare Biden to a house guest who’s overstayed his welcome whom they still have all agreed to back at this moment. More committed progressives say they are ready to fall in line too because of the threat they believe Trump and other Republicans pose – “it’s basically a popular front to stop what Biden calls the attacks on freedom,” said Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America and board chair of the Bernie Sanders-aligned Our Revolution.

The timing of this report is intriguing. Is it trying to get ahead of an abysmal fundraising report? Piling on after recent negative reports from friendly media? (See, Gloves Off: Report Accuses Joe Biden of Borderline Abusive Behavior and Beyond, Reignites Questions About 2024, Even NY Times Drops Brutal Story Rebuking Joe Biden, ‘It’s *Seven* Grandkids’.)

Or is this an instance of the legacy media working hand-in-glove with its Democrat Party allies to lay the groundwork for something we all pretty much see coming?