With Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s recent announcement that House Republicans will launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s potential business dealings with his son Hunter, I’d hoped to link to a column on the news. Oddly, very few have come along. So I went with a link by conservative David Winston that, in part, analyzes Biden’s decent election poll numbers despite his poor approval ratings. Winston warns Republicans that shutting down the government over budget negotiations is the kind of behavior that — right or wrong — will help Biden next year. He could have said the same about the impeachment inquiry.

Because this inquiry is not something everyday Americans want. Do they believe Hunter Biden is a crook? Yes. Do they believe Joe Biden lied about discussing business with him? Yes. Do they believe this is evidence of a Biden family criminal enterprise? No. They simply don’t believe we’re living through SNL’s “Mastermind” sketch. 

Now, the right has a point about how some in the press have downplayed the Biden family’s shady dealings. An incredible book by Washington Post reporter Ben Schreckinger called “The Bidens” has multiple stunning anecdotes that received almost no attention. But that doesn’t change the fact that, three years on, the Hunter Biden ship has sailed. Watching Congressional Republicans pine after it rather than move on leads many Americans to wonder if the national GOP shares their concerns. That causes them to weigh other options. And in a two-party system, that option is Joe Biden. 

Republican leadership needs to wake up to the fact that they are currently losing the presidential election. They should be walking away with it.