Eye on 2024: Joe Biden slams Donald Trump at Virginia election rally!

Washington: US President Joe Biden slammed his predecessor Donald Trump by name repeatedly at an election rally just the day before he left for Rome and then on to Glasgow last week.

It's not 2024 yet, and Trump is not back on the ballot, this time to stop Biden from winning a second term.

The election rally was in support of Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who is running for governor in the state of Virginia. Biden attacked Trump at least 27 times. He mentioned McAuliffe's Republican rival Glenn Youngkin by name only twice, that too while reading out a news article about him.

'I ran against Donald Trump. And Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump,' the president said. 'Terry's opponent doesn't like to talk about how - very much now - but to win the Republican nomination, he embraced Donald Trump.' That's three times right here.

Democrats have sought to portray Youngkin as someone in the mold of Trump, who remains extremely unpopular in Virginia. But the governor race is being followed widely and closely for implications for the mid-term election of 2022 when the US House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be up for grabs and all the way up to 2024 when Biden could seek a second term or step aside for another Democrat.

Virginia votes Tuesday to either bring back McAuliffe, who was governor of the state once before, or give Youngkin a chance, in a major political upheaval. Virginia was once a Republican stronghold but has been solidly Democratic in recent years because of diversifying electorate, mostly Asian-Americans, including a large chunk of those of Indian descent.

This election is being watched around the world for indications if Biden's promise of 'America is Back' is merely a transient phase with the possibility of Trump's return in 2024, with all of his disruptive policies stemming from his 'America First' vision.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister who served as Nato secretary-general, told The Washington Post world leaders are watching the Virginia race and would view a loss - or even a narrow win - by McAuliffe as a warning sign about a possible return of former President Trump. 'It would add to some scepticism in Europe that the declaration that 'America is back' is only temporary,' he added.

The state of New Jersey is also voting on Tuesday - either to give current Democratic governor Phil Murphy another term or elect Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli.

Though ranked 11th and 12th by their population, they account for a mere 5% of the national vote. But because these gubernatorial races are held a year after the president election, tend to be seen as a quick referendum on the first year of the White House incumbent.

Biden's own approval ratings are quite bad at 42% in Gallup poll, something that he is acutely aware of. Asked about it at a press conference in Rome, he said, 'I didn't run to determine how well I'm going to do in the polls. I ran to make sure that I followed through on what I said I would do as President of the United States.'

His party's candidate in Virginia, McAuliffe, is not doing too well either. He has seen his polls number sink from 7 percentage point lead in August to trailing Youngkin by almost 1 point in poll forecaster FiveThirtyEight's weighted average of polls. The party's heavy-hitters - President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, former president Barack Obama - have all campaigned in the state, and often multiple times but have not been able to stop the fall.

Murphy remains ahead of his rival by 9 points in New Jersey and remains the favourite by a wide margin, the race has become much closer that seen earlier as Biden's ratings have tumbled.

Biden's 11-month presidency is not the key factor in either state though or Trump. 'What is happening in Virginia is a movement of the people being led and defined by Glenn Youngkin. It will be a mandate for individual Liberty and freedom. The large crowds from urban to rural counties show the failure of Democratic socialist policies,' said Puneet Ahluwalia, who heads Youngkin's outreach to the Asian-American community.

The question of race in schools has been the top issue in the Virginia election with Youngkin leading a culture-war campaign hoping to capitalise on the divisive issue. Pandemic response and the use of masks and vaccines playing a lead role as well with conservative resistance to both.