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Biden's Campaign Has Miscalculated on Israel

(New York Times) Mark Penn - President Biden's re-election campaign has fundamentally miscalculated on Israel. In Michigan, Biden lost 101,000 uncommitted votes in the Democratic primary, but Trump lost nearly 300,000 votes to Nikki Haley in the Michigan Republican primary. These people are in the moderate center, and many of them could be persuaded to vote for Biden if he fine-tuned his message to bring them in. The same math applies to Pennsylvania, where 158,000 people voted for Haley instead of Trump in the Republican primary, even though she dropped out seven weeks earlier. Biden is pushing the Haley vote to Trump. Those Haley voters are strong defense voters who would back our ally Israel unreservedly and, I believe, want to see a president who would put maximum pressure on Hamas to release hostages. 84% of Independents surveyed said they supported Israel more than Hamas in the conflict, and 63% said they believed a ceasefire should occur only after the hostages have been released. The more Biden has softened his support of Israel, the weaker he looks, and the more his foreign policy ratings have declined. Rather than pull decisively away from Israel, Biden should instead find a plan that enables Israel to go into Rafah and that has enough precautions for Rafah's civilians so the American president can back it. The writer was a pollster and an adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton from 1995 to 2008 and is chairman of the Harris Poll.
2024-05-16 00:00:00
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