Can Biden Change How Voters See Him? The Israel War May Give Him a Chance. Source: A Conversation with B. Biden at the Oval Office
In a year’s time voters will be able to decide on a number of issues, including the cost of living, the economy, the border, and crime. “Foreign policy is rarely a voting determinant, but President Biden may be leading the attack on isolation and a new partisan choice on how we gain security.”
Dr. Zelizer said, “I think the assumption should be that things will go south and there will be detrimental effects.” He said that Mr. Biden and his administration didn’t have control over how it all unfolded.
Several voters were skeptical of Mr. Biden’s call to send money to Israel and Ukraine.
Samantha Moskowitz, 27, a psychology student at Georgia Gwinnett College in the Atlanta suburbs, said the prospect of sending billions to Israel and Ukraine “makes me anxious, especially where our economy is right now.”
Ms Moskowitz, who did not vote for Mr. Biden or Donald J. Trump, said that it was too early to tell if she would vote again in the future. There is a need, but do we really need that much?
About 40 million people were watching Mr. Trump speak about immigration from the Oval Office. There were 27 million people watching the State of the Union speech by Mr. Biden.
Stanley B. Greenberg predicted that Mr. Biden would help rally the voters around the president and he called the address an important one in terms of definition of America’s security and bringing Iran to the forefront.
The initial polling suggests that broad majorities of Americans endorse Mr. Biden’s staunch support for Israel. In a Fox News poll, 66 percent of voters said that Israel was in the US’s interest, while 76 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll said the same.
Source: Can Biden Change How Voters See Him? [The Israel War May Give Him a Chance.](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/us/politics/biden-voters-approval-israel.html)
Putting the American Prisoner in a Changing Political Landscape: Vice President Joe Biden’s Call for a Comprehensive Resolution of the Gaza Strip Crisis
With the exception of 2004, when President George W. Bush confronted rising criticism about having led the nation into war against Iraq, no national election has been driven by foreign policy since the end of the Vietnam War.
Thousands of Democrats march on the Capitol this week in order to force Vice President Biden to push for a cease-fire in Israel.
The president has picked sides in a conflict over which he has little control. Most immediately, Mr. Biden faces the challenge of what he can do to secure the release of Americans being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Hamas released two American hostages on Friday afternoon, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that 10 more Americans had yet to be freed.
“It gives him an opportunity to change and strengthen his image,” said Charles R. Black Jr., a strategist for the presidential campaigns of both Bushes and Ronald Reagan. It gives him the chance to demonstrate his strength.
Paul said that this political moment may prompt voters to give a second look to Mr. Biden. There is a fear with an incumbent president that voters will write you off.
“What’s the biggest thing about Biden?” Mr. Begala added. It was old. This gives him a chance to lean into it. People will not vote on how he does in Israel. But I think this can let them reframe the age problem. It is a way for people to look and say, maybe it’s good we have the old guy in there. He is steady and strong.”
For Mr. Biden, an orderly handling of the crisis would be likely to buttress what is expected to be another dominant theme of his campaign if he finds himself running for a second time against Mr. Trump, with turmoil continuing among House Republicans as they seek to elect a speaker.
Mr. Black hopes that the House will calm down before the election. Trump doesn’t have a good handle on foreign policy, which is always chaotic.
The president’s appeal for military aid is going to be a hard sell in rural areas of the area, according to the 60 year old dairy farmer in Lone Rock, Wis.
Mr. Schmidt owns the largest dairy farm in Richland County, a swing district that had voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1980, until 2020, when voters there went for former President Trump’s re-election.
Money comes hard here, Mr. Schmidt said. It has been a tough year of farming for us. I think we support Israel, but I didn’t think we could do that much.
In Milwaukee’s suburbs the questions about violence in the Middle East and Ukraine were not as morally reprehensible as they might have been. She said the terrorist attacks against Israelis were triggering for her.
“I understand that there has been a fight between the two for years and years,” said Ms. Lucas, 58. “But the way that it was handled recently, my heart just broke of the devastation,” she said of the Hamas killings and kidnappings of Israeli families. “It took me back to 9/11 — the same feeling, the same fear of, you know, is it going to happen to us, or who’s next?”
On Friday she went to Holy Hill, a basilica on a forested hillside, a country drive away from her community, Brookfield, to take in the fall colors with her son, Michael, 25, who was in town from Tampa, Fla. They said they felt uneasy about the president calling for support for Israel. They sympathized with Palestinians and what they see as long-standing discrimination, even though they couldn’t condone terrorist attacks.
“There are times when I sit in the middle, because I can see both sides of it,” Janet Lucas said. “And then I also think, is there another way, could the United States or any other country get involved to help them to come to some form of peace?”