Opinion: A good week for Biden, a bad week for the world
(CNN) — Recent Democratic presidents have sought reelection by limiting overt campaigning and instead making sure they’re seen focusing on the nuts and bolts of their job. President Bill Clinton, in his successful 1996 reelection bid, spent the late months of his campaign negotiating legislative deals with a Republican-majority Congress. And President Barack Obama, in late October 2012, took time off the campaign trail in his ultimately winning bid to lead the federal response to Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast.
A bit over a year out from Election Day 2024, President Joe Biden is taking a similar approach, by dint of a morbid and tragic pair of international crises. By taking a lightning-fast visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday after a similar wartime visit to Ukraine a few months earlier, and making a primetime appeal to American voters Thursday to support both Israel and Ukraine in their wars against evil forces, Biden is reaping political dividends by playing the statesman.
Biden’s efforts stand out even more than usual since his likely 2024 Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, has been clumsy and ineffective in trying to insert himself into these news events, as when he praised Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group based in Lebanon, in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel. At the same time, the Republicans in office are in disarray as an increasingly embarrassing Republican leadership struggle in the House has paralyzed Capitol Hill.
Biden, in contrast, appears capable and steadfast. For 20 months, he has been a stalwart defender of Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia. And for nearly two weeks Biden demonstrated steely support for Israel as the Middle East’s only democracy responds to Hamas’ October 7 attacks that claimed some 1,400 lives, among then 32 Americans. He noted during his TV address that his quick trip to Israel is the first of an American president to the country during war-time, while his touchdown in Ukraine in February was the first time a US president entered a warzone not controlled by the US.
Whatever effect they have on the diplomatic front, Biden’s Israel trip and Thursday night prime time television address can only help his reelection efforts at this point, especially if he faces Trump. Both show a confident, experienced commander-in-chief projecting gravitas and a deep knowledge of history, having made official visits to Israel going back to 1973 as a freshman senator from Delaware.
Biden made the long journey despite predictable criticism that he’s tilted too far in Israel’s direction at the expense of the Palestinians. Arab allies who he’d hoped to meet with instead snubbed him, and Muslim protesters have taken to the streets in cities around the world in opposition to Israel and its American backers.
Many observers also said he didn’t achieve much, but in Biden’s roughly seven-and-a-half hour Israel visit Wednesday, in which he met government officials, first responders and families of terror victims, among others, he was able to secure his two main goals: to reassure the Israeli public he stood with them and against terrorists, giving them strength for the fight as well as space to demand concessions if needed. And he also hammered out a limited plan for getting humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt for civilians effectively trapped in the small territory, which will hopefully serve as a template for more to come.
But Biden’s key audience was the domestic one. He wanted to win over the American public, and pro-Israel community specifically, which is why images of the president hugging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are so politically potent. The Middle East trip by Biden, who turns 81 on November 20, also offered a none-to-subtle rejoinder to GOP criticisms that he’s too old for a second term. (Granted, having Air Force One at the president’s beck-and-call is an easier form of travel for the 12-hour Washington, DC,-to-Tel Aviv flight than an economy seat on El Al.)
Some Republicans even offered grudging praise for Biden’s Israel trip. His urgent diplomatic mission sharply contrasts with House Republicans’ infighting in Washington, where the inability of the majority party to select a speaker from among its own members means the body can’t take any steps to help the war effort. Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee even called Biden’s trip a “gutsy, bold move.”
Biden also drew some plaudits from the right over his television address, which directly appealed to Americansfor support in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, including an $100 billion aid package he plans to send to Congress shortly (if there is a Congress). He also underscored America’s commitment to its leadership role in the world and the values it has historically promoted.
“It may be remembered as one of the best, if not the best, speeches of his presidency. He was firm, he was unequivocal, he was strong,” Fox News political analyst Brit Hume said of Biden, offering rare praise.
Of course, many prominent conservatives still found grounds for panning the Democratic president. His trip drew scorn from 2024 Republican presidential candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, as well as mockery from Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham. “He was mumbling, reading his note cards and called Hamas ‘the other team,’” Ingraham wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Nor has Biden been spared criticism from some Democrats. Members of the party’s far-left fringe have effectively blamed Israel for taking defensive military measures against Hamas in Gaza after its terror attacks ended in the highest Jewish casualty count since the Holocaust. And the progressive wing has been making inroads into the Democratic Party’s support for Israel as a whole. According to Gallup, Democratic support for Israel has been sliding for years. Per one CBS News poll, a majority of Democrats don’t favor sending extra weapons and supplies to Israel at this time.
More broadly, though, Biden is capitalizing on solid political ground. Massive majorities support sending humanitarian aid to Israel and a poll released by Quinnipiac University on Tuesday, roughly 61% said their sympathies lie with Israel. Even more voters (around 65%) agree with Biden that supporting Ukraine is in America’s national interest.
So, on balance, Biden’s resolute support of Israel is likely to help more than hurt, especially as it strengthens his centrist credentials. And swing voters are the ones Biden really needs to win reelection in 2024. At the same time, there’s little evidence to date that progressives will break with him over support for Israel if Trump is the 2024 Republican nominee.
The foreign policy moves could particularly help with voters in swing states if they read it as him pushing back against his party’s most extreme elements, as some pro-Israel Democratic members of Congress have done. It’s a political formula mastered by Democratic presidential predecessors like Clinton and, in his own way, Obama, ahead of their reelection wins: Clinton agreed to compromises with the Republican Congress on welfare reform, the Defense of Marriage Act and a range of other issues. Obama, meanwhile, at points in his 2012 campaign touted spending austerity, deficit reduction and extension of George W. Bush-era tax cuts.
Voters for now are giving Biden reasonably good reviews for his handling of both Israel and Ukraine. He has a year to make that stick — a challenging task since most presidential elections since the end of the Cold War have been decided on domestic issues, rather than foreign affairs. Moreover, the situation is volatile, and Biden could end up looking bad if suffering in Gaza increases, a wider war takes place, American forces are killed, there are terror attacks on American soil, or any number of other negative possibilities happen. But Biden, for now, is nailing a key part of the job, just as Clinton and Obama did before him: being presidential.
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