"the Western world is dealing with a war-driven energy crunch that’s generally rough on incumbent parties"

 Ross Douthat for the Sunday HardNews win.  Either he's got the best eyesight on staff and can see what's coming, or he's reading the right people.  Too bad about that 18th century stodgy writing style that lets gems like the above get buried in his verbiage....

He's citing somebody else's work here:  

"Biden made critical decisions on energy and immigration that his party’s activists demanded: for environmentalists, a moratorium on new oil-and-gas leases on public lands and, for immigration advocates, a partial rollback of key Trump administration border policies. What followed, in both arenas, was a crisis: first a surge of migration to the southern border, then the surge in gas prices driven by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

But at least he is putting the pieces together of what he is reading.  If November election results come as a "surprise" to well-heeled, out-of-touch liberals, there will likely be more endless allegations of cheating and voter fraud made by the Democrats currently in power.  They'll want investigations, and will refuse to go quietly, like the Cheney daughter.  Only a mandate will get DC's attention now, voters understand that nationally.

Hopefully today's news media, led by Ross Douthat here (of all people) will be the scout sent ahead to warn the readers of what is coming soon, and very soon.  It's only weeks away, and it seems the Dems are like the overconfident and sleepy hares just waking up to see how far in the political races the old quiet boring tortoises have advanced on them, with the finish line now well in sight.