EDITORIAL: A campaign like none other kicks off in Milwaukee

Polls show that Americans aren’t happy with a potential Joe Biden-Donald Trump rematch in 2024. Is it any wonder? Mr. Trump brings his inimitable brand of hubris and drama along with four indictments. Mr. Biden offers economic incoherence, trillions in unsustainable new debt and the ravages of time.

Several GOP alternatives took the debate stage on Wednesday night. But Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden — far ahead in the polls — continue to suck the oxygen from the campaign as alternative candidates struggle to make inroads with a frustrated public. The whiff of scandal can prove intoxicating even to those who profess no love for either candidate.

We live in interesting times, to say the least. As the debate began in Milwaukee, Mr. Trump was preparing to turn himself in on Thursday at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta, where he faces numerous counts related to his anger over Georgia’s 2020 election results. At the same time, Mr. Biden faces an escalating controversy engulfing his son, Hunter, and potentially his administration.

At this point, supporters of both men have dug their trenches and hopped in. Will moderate and independent voters — and even some party loyalists — eventually tire of front-running candidates dogged by criminal charges and allegations of corruption? Polls show that even Democrats would prefer somebody other than the incumbent.

Mr. Trump’s travails have naturally drawn the majority of attention. But it has becoming increasingly difficult for Democrats to deflect scrutiny from Hunter Biden’s influence peddling.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that “the younger Biden’s foreign business activities loom larger than ever” as the nation enters the early phases of the 2024 campaign. The Journal notes how Hunter Biden a decade ago parlayed a trip to Beijing with his vice president father into part ownership of a Chinese investment boutique. He followed that up with a lucrative deal to sit on a corporate board in Ukraine.

“Hunter Biden would go on,” the paper found, “to earn millions more from a brief association with a Chinese energy-and-finance conglomerate trying to break into the U.S.”

While Mr. Biden labors to convince voters he knew nothing about his son’s unseemly wheeling and dealing, Mr. Trump wears his indictments like honor badges. Will he have time to traverse the hustings next year when his presence may be required in courtrooms around the country?

Many voters appear resigned to the inevitability of the two. Whether someone on the stage Wednesday night — or a maverick Democrat — can break through the noise remains the $64,000 question. But if Americans are truly fed up with the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch, they’ve got the next 14 months to prove it.