There is an obvious advantage to being a wartime president running for reelection. As long as voters perceive things as going well, they are reluctant to change the commander-in-chief. President George W. Bush used this to his advantage in 2004, making John Kerry’s record on foreign policy and flip-flopping on various national security issues a liability for him. Kerry initially supported the War in Iraq before infamously doing a 180 when the radical anti-war movement gained influence in the Democratic Party. Bush successfully painted Kerry as being too risky to be commander-in-chief and insisted that the most successful strategy was to stay the course.
The voters agreed, and George W. Bush was reelected — albeit barely. It was another close election, hinging on the results of one state. Did the message that changing the commander-in-chief in the middle of two wars would be a major setback help nudge Bush to victory? I think it’s fair to say that it helped. Kerry himself knew that Americans were very much in tune with the idea that they were electing a commander-in-chief, so he aggressively cited his military service during the campaign (which came back to bite him later) and campaigned on the idea that he was more suited to lead our country in a time of war than his opponent. Kerry infamously opened up his DNC acceptance speech by saluting the crowd and declaring, “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.”
Why does this matter now? Well, because Joe Biden may be looking at the “Wartime President” strategy as a means to save his reelection, which polls show is in big trouble. Why is it in trouble? For months, Joe Biden has sought to make the upcoming election about his economic policies, which he branded “Bidenomics,” with disastrous results. Americans’ views about the economy are not good, and poll after poll shows that Americans trust Trump and the Republicans on the economy and other important issues.
Related: Did the Biden Admin Let the Attack on Israel Happen?
This is why, as PJM’s Rick Moran reported earlier, Biden is attempting a pivot to make this an election about foreign policy. How can you do that when American support for the war in Ukraine is dwindling? You need another war.
Earlier this week, we learned that the Biden administration likely had advance knowledge of the Hamas attack on Israel but didn’t share any of that intelligence with Israel. This came after Biden’s appeasement of Iran made that very attack possible.
And starting World War III may be part of the plan. During his Oval Office address Thursday night, Biden announced he would “send to Congress an urgent budget request to fund America’s national security needs and support Israel and Ukraine. It’s a smart investment that will pay dividends for American security for generations.”
It’s no accident that Joe Biden is linking more money to Ukraine with aid to Israel. Keep in mind that Republicans have been resisting more funding for the war in Ukraine. Republicans even successfully managed to exclude more funding for Ukraine in the latest stopgap funding bill. By making aid to Israel dependent on more funding for Ukraine, Biden, who is also now about to send millions to Hamas, seems ready to pour gasoline on the fire and start WWIII in the hopes that being a de facto wartime president will save his reelection.
