Trying to defeat incumbent. Check
Neocon. Check.
Boring white dude. Check.
Most likely to lose. Check
Yes, they even are the worst possible candidate for the surrounding situation. Kerry was a warmongering imperialist in a time when liberals were actually anti-war. Biden is a racist pedo in the wake of MeToo who wants MORE imperialism than Trump (again, not popular with anyone that's not a Beltway ghoul). Dem strategy is always to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as it's quite profitable
And at least Kerry was a proud father and military man who won three purple hearts.
Even CNN speculated that would be the case. COVID and widespread protests were fortuitous in hurting Trump though. Biden was below where Hillary was at the same point in polling if I remember rightly, and the only saving grace was maybe doing better in the close states she lost. I haven't been checking too much but I think all this shit has just made the bar that much lower for him to pass. The mitigating factor is attempting to disenfranchise voters and throw out mail-in ballots and generally cast doubt ahead of the election. They want to stop any increase in turnout and any swing from Trump just being shit.