NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show.
My good friend Elizabeth Prann is in tonight — have an awesome weekend.
What Israel is up against:
- Not all Palestinians support raping, torturing, murdering or kidnapping Israeli civilians, but new polling shows the OVERWHELMING majority (75 percent) do.
- Look at Table 27 of this data from Arab World for Research and Development:
Moral clarity cuts both ways: The Israeli offensive pours gasoline on the anger among those living in the West Bank and Gaza. And while any permanent and peaceful two-state solution requires eliminating Hamas, nobody has the faintest idea of how to start the process postwar.
Hard truth: A lasting and enduring peace gets harder with every mother, father and child killed in Gaza.
Israel doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past when it failed to kill all of Hamas’ leadership over fear of collateral damage.
And it’s working — the Israel Defense Forces appear to still have battlefield momentum.
As former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said, “We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”
Biden’s Plan?
President Biden’s problem isn’t the recent polling showing him losing to former President Donald Trump (-4), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (-2) or former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (-10). His problem is he appears to have no opportunity for a win or plan to turn those numbers around.
Can TikTok save him?
Axios scoops that Biden might join TikTok to court young voters.
- Yes, the same app that yesterday amplified the Osama bin Laden letter and Republicans want to ban because it is Chinese spyware.
The Problems
In 2020, voters could afford literally and figuratively to vote against mean tweets and in favor of science. That luxury does not exist anymore.
Let’s take a quick tour of the issues to be discussed over Thanksgiving dinner:
- The economy: Despite a SLIGHTLY cheaper Thanksgiving meal (a few key food staples are lower), Americans are still overwhelmingly uneasy about the economy. High interest rates naturally hurt those with the least breathing room the most.
- But no help is coming. There is no appetite in Congress for any type of new spending bill or tax cuts, and the promised relief from the Inflation Reduction Act isn’t changing public opinion.
- Trish Regan will be on tonight to discuss the cost of Thanksgiving.
- Foreign policy: Biden’s signature foreign policy, the war in Ukraine, is now in a bloody stalemate with eroding support for continued funding. In a damning indictment of his reengagement with Iran, there is a war in the Middle East. His meeting in San Francisco with Chinese President Xi Jinping can hardly be seen as a success.
- Paralyzed: Biden’s foreign policy team gets good marks for handling major crises — Israel and Ukraine. But it does a lousy job preventing them from occurring — and more are coming from China and Iran
- Cultural issues: Biden rode the BLM, anti-racism, trans rights and DEI train to election victory in 2020. Suburban swing voters loved showing their newfound wokeness or at least weren’t turned off by it.
- That script has flipped.
- Those same suburban swing voters are more scared of carjackings than racism—never mind the boys in girls’ bathrooms or kids chanting “from the river to the sea” that keeps causing the administration headaches.
- The border:As we discussed on last night’s show, Biden’s promised open border policy resulted in 57 percent of Americans saying they want a wall. Seventy-one percent of Americans say they aren’t happy with border policies.
- Blocked: He is penned in by the left wing of his party that won’t allow any meaningful enforcement. The migrant crisis in NYC and other blue cities is already scaring suburban swing voters.
In 2020, Biden ran as a relatively blank canvas allowing voters to project what they wanted. Now, they decidedly don’t like what they have.
BUT — as we have said many times on air and in War Notes, never underestimate Republicans’ ability to screw things up.
The New York Times found people who are excited about Kamala Harris, and the Times spoke to those voters to find out why.
Newsom Watch: It’s only a matter of time—when does Biden think Newsom could replace him? Biden said, “He can have the job I’m looking for.”
Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of NewsNation.