Super Tuesday: In US swing states, Biden's opponents smell weakness - but there are danger signs for Trump too
If Super Tuesday doesn't signal a change in the expected line-up, November's presidential election will see Donald Trump face Joe Biden. They and their politics will dominate the next eight months, having dominated the last eight years. One first-time voter has already lost faith.
Tuesday 5 March 2024 17:51, UK
They had Fox News on the TV in Mary's Diner at Rocky Mount in Virginia.
So the worry over Joe Biden's age was their teatime story, no matter that it was two days old.
The president's opponents smell weakness on one of the key election issues - him. And they are flogging it.
A New York Times/Siena College poll at the weekend showed that a majority of Biden supporters think him too old to be effective.
We ran it past Don Blankenship, 74, a Democrat-leaning voter in Ferrum, Virginia.
He said: "It certainly wouldn't keep me from voting for him, not a major concern. He would have a vice president to step in. And they can lean on other people, too - a lot of presidents do that."
If it's hand-wringing for the people who back him, it's fist-pumping for Republicans.
"I think he's terrible," said Dede Booker, 48, a Trump supporter whom we met in Greensboro, North Carolina.
"I think if he does not have note cards in front of him, he can't think on his own. He's old as dirt and I think he's ruining this country."
The rhetoric won't weaken on a campaign trail that winds through political extremes. Biden's mental capabilities are, at once, a prime target and prime concern.
November's election will be decided in places like North Carolina and half a dozen swing states like it - battlegrounds where the result isn't a foregone conclusion.
We visited the 'Women's Market' by the river in Wilmington. It's a showcase for "female makers" of this port city in North Carolina.
If Super Tuesday doesn't signal a change in the expected line-up, it will be Donald Trump versus Biden. They and their politics will dominate the next eight months, having dominated the last eight years.
Explained: What is Super Tuesday?
'Reproductive rights could tip my vote'
At the Wilmington market, we talked about reproductive rights.
It's an issue at the heart of US electoral politics, supercharged when Trump-appointed Supreme Court judges overturned Roe v Wade and restricted access to abortion nationwide.
It has driven the Democrat vote ever since and Republicans have suffered at the polls - most notably in the 2022 mid-terms. What of 2024?
"Our rights are becoming more and more of an issue," said Ann Carbone.
"Reproductive rights should be personal in the home and a decision between the individuals involved and the doctor involved, not a bunch of male politicians sitting in the respective houses of government.
"It's extreme, it's becoming more and more of an issue."
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Concerns are compounded by Alabama's Supreme Court casting doubt over IVF treatment, with a ruling that embryos are considered children.
"I think [reproductive rights] would be the one issue that would tip my vote," Bethany Carpenter told us.
"Not everyone's necessarily like that, everyone's kind of different, but for me that's definitely a deciding factor and it's something I've kind of been paying close attention to, especially when it comes to IVF.
"I definitely am looking around different states, seeing what they're doing. I think things kind of start in pockets and then tend to spread."
Lori Wheeler offered a counter view. She told Sky News: "I am against abortion. That doesn't mean I'm against people who have abortions.
"It would [shape my vote]. It makes a difference to me if there's someone going into office that says we all should be able to have abortions, they're completely open to it. Yeah, they would not get my vote."
An electorate's perfect storm
It's no single-issue election, of course. Immigration, the economy, foreign wars and adversaries are perennial themes to exercise a US electorate.
Throw in an alleged threat to democracy and it is an electorate's perfect storm.
The United States is enduring an intense political cycle and a population feels it, that much is clear.
It's clear when you ask members of the public to conduct an on-camera interview and people reply, politely, that they can't as they "have to live here".
It is, by no means, the response of all or even most people but it's something you hear a lot.
It is the sound of politics as a hostile environment, in which everyone can be a target in trench warfare.
'I have no idea who I'm going to vote for'
Will that change? The nation isn't holding its breath. Aryahna Tyree certainly isn't.
The 19-year-old student from Virginia told us she wasn't sure where to place her vote in November.
She said: "I am a part of the LGBTQ community and I just want to feel safe and I want to feel safe as a woman.
"I am not a big supporter of either [Biden or Trump]. I have no idea who I'm going to vote for. Someone that'll keep me safe."
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Asked if she thought that was in the gift of the likely two presidential candidates, Ms Tyree replied that it wasn't.
She said: "I think Donald Trump disrespects women. And Joe Biden is not in control of the country."
It is a sad indictment from a first-time voter who has lost faith in a system she has barely found.