How bad must it be, for the most Regime of all Regime Media to report this?

President Joe Biden was seething.

In a private meeting at the White House in January, allies of the president had just told him that his poll numbers in Michigan and Georgia had dropped over his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Both are battleground states he narrowly won four years ago, and he can't afford any backsliding if he is to once again* defeat Donald Trump. He began to shout and swear, a lawmaker familiar with the meeting said.

• Citation needed

He believed he had been doing what was right, despite the political fallout, he told the group, according to the lawmaker.

Asked about the episode, Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said: "President Biden makes national security decisions based on the country's national security needs alone -- no other factor."

LOL. That's why he keeps slamming Israel and visiting Muslim enclaves in Michigan, huh?

Biden's chafing at his persistently-low poll numbers.

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History suggests it will be tough for him to recover. Biden's 38% approval rating at this stage in the calendar is lower than that of the last three presidents who went on to lose re-election: Trump (48%), George H.W. Bush (39%) and Jimmy Carter (43%), according to Gallup survey data.

Like Obama, Biden thinks he just isn't appreciated enough by American ingrates.

Biden has long believed that he isn't getting sufficient credit for an economy that has created 15 million new jobs. Looking to reach distracted voters who may be tuning in, he told his speechwriters before the State of the Union address to tone down some of the lofty rhetoric and plainly lay out what he's done, a person familiar with speech preparations said.

Biden really wants to get out there and tell his Old Man Confabulations, but his staff of nurses and elder care experts keep stopping him:

Surrounded by protective aides who want to minimize the chances of a flub, the 81-year-old president has chafed at restraints that he sees as counter to his natural instincts as a retail politician, a third person familiar with internal discussions said.

He has felt cocooned at times and has been eager to get out more, meet voters face-to-face and take the fight directly to Trump...

Sure, sure. The man who can barely walk and who naps for 18 hours a day really wants to get out there and expend more energy.

There are signs that some within his party are also losing patience with him.

"Biden stood up in front of the whole world and said, 'I'm ready. I'm the guy who can take down Donald Trump,'" said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. "So, he goddamn well better do it. We don't have time for him to be worried about whether or not people are saying things right or the poll numbers are where they should be. I want focused energy and not defensive anger."

The media treats "go**amn" as if it's acceptable language. But they'll shriek if you correctly gender Dylan Mulvaney and Will "Lia" Thompson.

Biden has on occasion directed his ire at his tightknit senior staff. Given the successes he has had in passing consequential bills and improving the economy, Biden was irritated that his message wasn't sinking in with the broader electorate, the sources said.

LOL. Don't stroke out, dude.

At times, Biden gets suggestions that conflict with one another. Some advisers have told him he should walk faster out of concern that his gait feeds impressions that he's too old. And yet the White House is sufficiently worried about him tripping that he has taken to boarding Air Force One via a shorter staircase through the belly of the plane, forgoing the iconic image of the president waving from the main doorway high above the tarmac.

"He's probably a little mad at himself for not being more forceful with the staff," a person familiar with internal discussions said.

Oh, I hear he's plenty "forceful" with his staff, raging at them with senile impotence.

Privately, Biden questions whether he should trust his gut instincts over the guidance coming from the array of advisers tending to his political interests, this person added.

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A consensus of Democratic officials is that Biden needs an army of surrogates to spread the word that his record has improved American lives in concrete ways. He can't carry the message alone.

Joe Biden thinks he's done such a good job as president that the man who routinely denigrated him as a "f*ck up" would totally be jelly.

President Biden doesn't speak frequently with Barack Obama -- but behind closed doors, he talks about him a lot.

Why it matters: Biden often measures himself against the man he served as vice president, current and former aides say. It's a complex relationship in which there is a rivalry -- particularly on Biden's side.

"Obama would be jealous," Biden sometimes says when speaking about a perceived accomplishment, according to two Biden aides familiar with such instances.

The competitive dynamic has informed Biden's approach to several issues -- including how he's dealt with Afghanistan, Israel and Congress.

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Driving the news: Biden's range of feelings about Obama is apparent in the recently released transcript of Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden's handling of classified documents.

Unprompted, Biden told Hur about the wounding experience of Obama favoring Hillary Clinton over him to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.

Biden recalled that "a lot of people ... were encouraging me to run in this period, except the president .... He just thought that [Clinton] had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did."

Biden privately has told aides that he believed he could have beaten Donald Trump if he had run in 2016.

Biden speaks more often with former President Bill Clinton than Obama, the Washington Post has reported.

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The intrigue: Many longtime Biden aides have long felt that Obama and his team did not fully appreciate Biden's experience with foreign policy, Congress and grip-and-grin politicking -- and were disrespectful.

Many strong relationships remain between Biden and Obama worlds, but there is some hostility.

One former Biden aide told Axios: "The Obama people thought Biden would suck as president. They didn't think he'd be organized enough to execute."

So that's how you see yourselves, huh? Fascinating.

Some Biden aides resent the large number of Obama veterans Biden and his top aides decided to bring into the current administration at levels above people who had worked with Biden for much longer.

"We do have too many Obama people who don't care about Joe Biden. It's about them," one former White House official told Axios.

Obama himself acknowledged in 2021 the overlap between his team and Biden's, telling The New York Times, "Joe and the administration are essentially finishing the job ... 90% of the folks who were there in my administration, they are continuing and building on the policies we talked about."

This has created tension between the two camps ahead of the 2024 election -- especially when some Obama-era operatives offer advice.

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Zoom in: At times, Biden's competitiveness with Obama has affected how he governs. He's tried to correct for what he sees as the former president's mistakes and shortcomings.

Biden was adamant about withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 2021 -- in part because he felt vindicated that Obama should have followed his advice in 2009 to largely withdraw them then.

When talking about lobbying Obama against surging troops to Afghanistan in 2009, Biden told Hur that he was trying to "quite frankly, save his ass."

Biden ordered a withdrawal from Afghanistan in his first months as president. The chaos at the end of that operation -- including the killing of 13 U.S. service members -- was the lowest moment of Biden's presidency for many in the administration.

Biden White House officials also recall there was a push to "go big" in early 2021 with their first legislative package -- the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which included COVID aid and expansions of the social safety net.

That was partly because they believed Obama hadn't gotten enough money approved for the $787 billion Recovery Act during the 2009 financial crisis.

And that worked out great, huh?

David Strom quotes Nate Silver, making the case that Democrats really are losing blacks and Hispanics, but Democrats are pretending all the polls are "skewed."

Silver was commenting on the below Twitter thread, noting various polls showing Biden's loss of support among minorities:

Silver commented:

The thread triggered its share of responses from the usual suspects, part of a recent pattern of poll denialism among Democrats that has crept its way into even the White House.

Lastly: Joe Biden's "boat anchor shoes" are still getting comments.

The Hokas are meant for "hiking," "walking" and "lifestyle" and feature a "quick-toggle lace ... designed for easy on and off," according to the product website, which also advertises "neutral" stability for wearers who want "a symmetrical bed of cushion."

The sneakers also boast a seal of approval from the American Podiatric Association as being good for foot health, a benefit which could come in handy for Biden after his recent physical revealed he suffers from a "stiffened gait."

Biden has especially struggled going up and down the steps of Air Force One, repeatedly slipping and stumbling while ascending to and descending from his official plane.

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Politico first reported on Biden's increasing use of tennis shoes back in January, citing a source close to the president who said Biden used to "resist" wearing the casual shoes because he was concerned about not looking presidential enough -- but eventually conceded for reasons of comfort.

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Biden participates in physical therapy to increase his "core stability" at least "four to five times a week," according to the report from his annual physical.

Yeah so did Ruth Bader Ginsberg.