BTRTN: Biden Tames Two Big Issues While the GOP Field Widens

Born To Run The Numbers provides its latest 2024 Campaign Update, and its review of the month of June, during which the Biden White House successfully navigated two potential disasters:

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2023/06/btrtn-biden-tames-two-big-issues-while.html

Excerpts: "One month ago, Joe Biden knew he would face two major issues in the month of May and either could make or break his presidency...The first was the need to raise the debt ceiling. Biden’s public approach had been to declare, time and again, that he would not negotiate with Congress on the matter. The other was immigration...the lifting of Title 42 was expected to result in a flood of migrants across the southern border...
"Biden, ever the deal man, quickly abandoned his non-negotiation pose to resolve the debt ceiling issue. What has emerged is a deal that has outraged the far right and disappointed the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, but was passed handily by a coalition of more centrist Democrats and less-crazed Republicans in both the House and the Senate...widely viewed as a Biden victory.
"Knowing that immigration spikes make for terrific visuals in Biden attacks, and clear 'evidence' that Biden has 'open borders' and is soft on immigration, the GOP gleefully awaited the expected surge. But that surge never came. In fact, border encounters dropped to roughly 4,000 per day since Title 42 elapsed, a major decline from the recent norm of over 10,000."
"But another counterintuitive force played into Trump's favor in May, and that was the expansion of the GOP field. Initially, Trump viewed such challenges as the ultimate act of disloyalty. But he now recognizes that a larger field fragments the “Not Trump” lane, lessening the chances for any single candidate to claim the critical mass of supporters required to defeat Trump..."