Good news for former Vice President Joe Biden: A new poll shows him beating President Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2020 election matchup. Bad news: The same poll shows Americans would prefer an unnamed Democrat.

The Morning Consult/Politico survey released Wednesday, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, illustrates the paradox facing Democrats. They are headed toward what most experts believe will be a successful midterm election, and the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is unpopular, but they have no obvious leader.

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The closest the party comes probably is Biden, who has loads of experience and name recognition as a former vice president and longtime senator from Delaware, along with goodwill as a loyal supporter of the man he served under — President Barack Obama.

Many Democrats believe Biden could have succeeded where 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton failed. And Biden publicly has mulled taking a shot at the White House in 2020. He got attention Tuesday when he and Obama showed up for a lunch date in Washington, D.C.

The poll found Biden is the choice of 44 percent of registered voters, compared with 37 percent who would vote for Trump if the election were held today. Another 19 percent were undecided.

That is an obvious red flag for Trump, as was his approval rating, which clocked in at 43 percent in the latest survey.

But the poll did not indicate a particular yearning for Biden. Compared with the former vice president’s 7-point advantage over Trump, a generic Democrat scored a 13-point margin over the president — 48 percent to 35 percent.

The gap has nothing to do with Republicans, for whom the candidate makes absolutely no difference. Trump has a 68-point advantage among GOPers whether the Democratic opponent is Biden or unnamed.

But independents were 7 points less likely to support Biden, and Democrats were 10 points less likely.

The Morning Consult poll also demonstrates the impact that Trump has had on the trade debate — on both sides of the aisle. The GOP traditionally has been the vanguard of free trade, while Democrats historically have opposed reducing tariffs on imports. More Republicans than Democrats in the House of Representatives voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1990s.

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Related: Fallon Takes on the Potential Fight Between Trump and Biden

The current political terrain would be unfamiliar to partisans from that era. Consider the results of the Morning Consult/Politico survey:

  • 43 percent of Republicans, but only 20 percent of Democrats, said they believe other countries have benefited more than the United States from free trade agreements.
  • 70 percent of Republicans said they generally support imposing tariffs on foreign-made goods that compete with those made in the United States, compared with 33 percent of Democrats.
  • 45 percent of Republicans agreed the economy benefits more from imposing tariffs than from reducing them. Only 19 percent of Democrats agreed.
  • 79 percent of Republicans supported a $12 billion aid package to farmers to blunt the impact of retaliatory tariffs imposed on American agricultural products; 38 percent of Democrats agreed.