Sell the War, Joe
Slow as President Biden is in getting Ukraine the weapons it needs, he’s worse on another key front: making the case for US support to the American public. Vladimir Putin’s victory in this war would spell disaster for the civilized world, the United States included: Russia would soon move on other nations Putin thinks he owns; China and Iran would turn more aggressive, and US allies more fearful and cautious.
Yes, Biden has backed Kyiv. But he’s put all the bully-pulpit powers of the presidency into selling his domestic agenda. As a result, Ukraine may turn out to be yet another of his spectacular failures.
An AP-NORC poll found support for a “major” US role in the war fell from 32% last year to just 26% in January. Only 48% of Americans still back sending US weapons, down from 60%. Those who think we’ve already done too much have swelled from 7% a year ago to 26% percent last month, per Pew.
“I feel badly for [Ukraine], but I feel like we need to first take care of priorities here at home,” says Joe Hernandez of Rocklin, Calif.
That sentiment’s bound to grow.
Yet US support is key to Ukraine’s ability to resist the Russian onslaught. Biden should be screaming from the rooftops every day to ensure that support.
His surprise visit to Kyiv on the invasion’s anniversary was great for Ukraine’s morale but did nothing for American opinion. And his speeches focus on bragging about his economic “achievements” and so on.
Biden already made one huge mistake in advance of the war, by trying to deter Putin only with loud talk of sanctions rather than actually rushing arms to Ukraine. He’s erred more by letting Putin’s nuclear bluffs intimidate him from sending Kyiv more powerful weapons.
Biden knows the stakes are high: “The cost of walking away could be considerably higher than the cost of helping,” he said recently. But the cost of not rallying the nation — yes, even at the expense of his partisan domestic agenda — is at least as high.
Honor your oath of office, sir: Put the national interest ahead of your partisan ones.