--- title: Global Crises Could Win Biden Back the White House description: It’s tough to defeat a wartime President, history shows. Biden can use the powers and pulpit of the presidency to his advantage in the race. canonical: https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-15T19:10:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:41:39.718Z article:section: Politics og:title: Global Crises Could Win Biden Back the White House og:description: It’s tough to defeat a wartime President, history shows. Biden can use the powers and pulpit of the presidency to his advantage in the race. og:url: https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb71617419dff1b63/698a55ab457a52374dd6a31d/GettyImages-2148735544.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Biden Meets With Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Global Crises Could Win Biden Back the White House twitter:description: It’s tough to defeat a wartime President, history shows. Biden can use the powers and pulpit of the presidency to his advantage in the race. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb71617419dff1b63/698a55ab457a52374dd6a31d/GettyImages-2148735544.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Global Crises Could Win Biden Back the White House > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c019067f-610c-4296-bd15-2b451cf8f624&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Weekdays | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Weekly | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Twice a week | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c019067f-610c-4296-bd15-2b451cf8f624&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=c019067f-610c-4296-bd15-2b451cf8f624&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (health, weekdays), Worth Your Time (culture, weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c019067f-610c-4296-bd15-2b451cf8f624&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: U.S. President Joe Biden Says "We Will Help Defend Israel and Iran Will Not Succeed.” [Watch (HLS stream): U.S. President Joe Biden Says "We Will Help Defend Israel and Iran Will Not Succeed.”](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Uhf3kbJX.m3u8) (0:41)  _Published 2024-04-12. President Joe Biden says he expects Iran to attack Israel "sooner rather than later."_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Apr 15, 2024 7:10 PM UTC President Joe Biden says he expects Iran to attack Israel "sooner rather than later."  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Apr 15, 2024 7:10 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ Roughly a year before the 2004 campaign hit its frenzied stride, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich huddled in a private room at a French restaurant just a few blocks from the White House. There, one of the Republican Party’s sharpest tacticians spent more than two hours sparring with professional neocon hawk Paul Wolfowitz about the plan going forward in Iraq, strategy in the region for curbing extremism, and its interplay with the looming Bush-Cheney re-election bid. All the while, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld’s longtime adviser Steve Herbits kept chiming in with a prompt no one disagreed with: “This President is going to get creamed if you don’t change this.” Gingrich understood the stakes and went to the White House with a strategy memo to turn around the devolving political situation in Iraq. Across from Karl Rove, the strategist often referred to as “Bush’s Brain,” Gingrich had a direct message for his fellow Republicans, one that barely needed to be articulated: “Losing a war is bad.” But there was a corollary to that: Winning one is much, much better. Put plainly, it’s really tough to defeat a wartime President. The last 72 hours in Washington after Iran [launched](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-attack-strikes-live-updates-rcna147477) failed drones and missiles at Israel and triggered global condemnation have served as a stark reminder that there is no pulpit from which more power flows to all corners of the globe than the American presidency. Wielding a national security apparatus that overtakes all other issues—foreign powers, global markets, even domestic polling—is part of the U.S. might, and it gives the incumbent resident of the White House unrivaled advantages, especially heading into an election cycle. History supports this.Despite the Bush 43 team not fully heeding Gingrich’s dire warning—all of which is recounted in Bob Woodward’s third volume about the Bush years, _State of Denial_—Vietnam veteran John Kerry couldn’t beat him in 2004\. Despite a [disaster](https://time.com/4384584/benghazi-report-hillary-clinton-congress-libya/) in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, then-former Massachusetts Governor and future-Utah Senator Mitt Romney couldn’t get it done against Barack Obama with troop levels in Afghanistan [tripled](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/us/politics/for-obama-a-delicate-new-balance-on-national-security.html) and Osama bin Laden dead. Ronald Reagan, who was laying the groundwork for the end of both the Soviet Union and the Cold War, [won](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/07/politics/reagan-wins-by-a-landslide-sweeping-at-least-48-states-gop-gains.html) 49 states during his re-election bid in 1984 against former Vice President Walter Mondale. Four years later, with Vice President George H.W. Bush running essentially for a third term of Reagan and the one-time [Evil Empire](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,962124,00.html) collapsing under its own weight, Americans served up the last [landslide](https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/09/us/1988-elections-bush-elected-6-5-margin-with-solid-gop-base-south-democrats-hold.html) election with the defeat of Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. (Bush 41, it has to be said, did [break](https://time.com/vault/issue/1992-11-16/page/1/)the wartime rule when he lost in 1992 despite the overwhelming defeat of Iraqi forces in the Gulf War I.) So while polling shows President Joe Biden in a tricky position of consistent [net-negative](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/) approval ratings and a [neck-and-neck](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/)—but [narrowing](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/13/us/politics/trump-biden-times-siena-poll.html)—fight against former President Donald Trump, Biden has a crucial advantage until at least Jan. 20, 2025\. Only one of the candidates has the nuclear launch codes. Only one of them has the institutional gravitas to summon world leaders to the phone to consult on the fast-breaking developments. Only one can launch a coordinated response from global alliances. And, baked into this formula, only one can use the White House’s massive national security shadow to assert American dominance that gives even the most skittish or sour voters some measure of comfort amid global chaos. The increasing global tensions over the weekend may turn out to be a pivot point in the election. Iran [responded](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/us/politics/iran-aerial-display-israel.html) to the killing of senior paramilitary leaders by [launching](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-launches-drone-attack-israel-expected-unfold-over-hours-2024-04-13/) 300 drones and missiles toward Israel late Saturday; with U.S. [assistance](https://time.com/6966758/how-the-u-s-rallied-to-defend-israel-from-irans-massive-attack/), the vast majority of those fell from the sky as shrapnel. In Russia, oil refineries have been [targeted](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/15/ukraine-war-live-updates-latest-news-on-russia-and-the-war-in-ukraine.html) by Ukraine in an effort to push Russian troops back onto their own land—moves that have [complicated](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/15/ukraine-russia-oil-refinery-attacks/) the White House’s pitch to lawmakers on a long-delayed $60 billion Ukraine aid package. And the recent visits to Washington from the leaders of Japan and the Philippines have revived Biden’s worries about Chinese aggression in the region, [prompting](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/13/us/politics/kritenbrink-china.html) the State Department to send a delegation to Beijing over the weekend to head off anxiety about a potential escalation regarding Taiwan. Biden’s team [contemplated](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/14/biden-low-profile-iran-israel-attack-00152158) a national address on the Middle East but ultimately kept that asset in reserve, concluding it would not be helpful at a moment when Washington and allies in the region have been pushing Hamas and Israel to reach a deal to release hostages now held for more than six months. Instead, Biden commented on the region on Monday during photo-op before a meeting in the Oval Office with the Iraqi Prime Minister. The White House knows they don’t have to play their cards right away, especially on a high-wattage national address. They might not want to hold them for too long, though. The warning signs for Team Biden are real and many. His campaign organization has been [slow](https://time.com/6958784/biden-campaign-strategy-problems-2024/) to come together, although aides are freshly bullish that they’re closing in on a winning package of aides, strategies, ads, and travel. Trump remains a unique political figure; lost on no one is the fact that jurors on Monday were starting to get in place for Trump’s criminal hush-money [trial](https://time.com/6966558/donald-trump-hush-money-trial-politics-election/) in New York. Still, the polling suggests Americans aren’t sure which of their two options is more appealing—or, perhaps, less discouraging—and Biden’s deep unpopularity of more than 16 points net negativity is worrisome for Democrats. To put that unpopularity into perspective, the last three incumbents to lose re-election all were polling better at this point in their presidencies than Biden is today. But with the skies over the West Bank and Israel ablaze with Iranian rockets and drones, a war slogging on in Ukraine, and tensions between Taiwan and mainland China renewed, Biden has a chance to position himself as a wartime President even without U.S. troops officially engaged. Policy and political observers alike are watching Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing for clues about what the real contours of U.S. decision-making will be, both in the Situation Room and at the ballot box. Foreign affairs seldom matter in presidential elections unless things are going very, very badly. Which is why Gingrich was dead right when he marched into his warning to Rove with the most basic message that can be summarized as: Strong, good; weak, bad. It’s not terribly sophisticated, but it’s worth remembering that nothing is as strong as the image of a U.S. President taking the lead on the world stage. Americans tend to like that vision of power, and we all know they also tend to vote on [feeling](https://time.com/6883103/the-dread-election/) more than any objective marker. Any contender for the presidency—incumbent or challenger alike—would do well to learn that lesson. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ## Transcript Eminence you take an attack on Israel from Iran, mr. President? What is your message to Ron right now in this moment? Make a present of cars are American troops at risk as well. We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will defend help defend Israel. And Iran will not succeed. Thank you very much response, sir. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/"},"headline":"Global Crises Could Win Biden Back the White House","datePublished":"2024-04-15T19:10:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:41:39.718Z","description":"It’s tough to defeat a wartime President, history shows. Biden can use the powers and pulpit of the presidency to his advantage in the race.","url":"https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/","keywords":["The D.C. Brief","feature","uspoliticspolicy","News desk edits"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb71617419dff1b63/698a55ab457a52374dd6a31d/GettyImages-2148735544.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Elliott","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb71617419dff1b63/698a55ab457a52374dd6a31d/GettyImages-2148735544.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Biden Meets With Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani At The White House","caption":"President Biden Meets With Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani At The White House","creditText":"Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/the-dc-brief/","name":"The D.C. Brief"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/","name":"Global Crises Could Win Biden Back the White House"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"U.S. President Joe Biden Says \"We Will Help Defend Israel and Iran Will Not Succeed.”","description":"President Joe Biden says he expects Iran to attack Israel \"sooner rather than later.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Uhf3kbJX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-04-12T20:13:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Uhf3kbJX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/","duration":"PT41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6967119/joe-biden-israel-iran-national-security-campaign/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```