Persuading the public is key to victory

As slow as President Joe Biden is in getting Ukraine the weapons it needs, he’s even worse on another key front: making the case for US support to the American public.

Vladimir Putin’s victory in this war would show that naked aggression works, spelling disaster for the world order and thus 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.

The obvious dangers are why Biden has backed Kyiv as hard as he has.

But he’s failed to make the case to the America public, instead putting all the bully-pulpit powers of the presidency into selling his domestic agenda and other purely partisan efforts.

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. A Fox News survey showed 46% want to slap a time limit on any aid.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy vows not to write Kyiv a “blank check,” and a small fringe of GOP lawmakers want to end all aid to Ukraine now.

The group is pushing a non-binding “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution.

Note the cynical name: They (rationally) expect that, as the war drags on, the public will tire and lose sight of the stakes.

“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., per AP.

That sentiment is bound to grow.

Yet US support is key to Ukraine’s ability to resist the Russian onslaught.

And if Kyiv falls, Moscow will soon enough move on to fresh targets, even NATO members; Beijing will up its bullying of its neighbors and look harder at invading Taiwan.

Iran and other rogue nations will turn more aggressive, too. Powers like Turkey will eye their own “special military operations.”

Biden should be screaming from the rooftops every day to ensure support.

His surprise visit to Kyiv on the invasion’s anniversary was great for Ukraine’s morale, but did nothing for American opinion.

No: His speeches focus on bragging about his economic “achievements” and celebrating idiocy like his drive to forgive college loans for mostly affluent Americans.

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 made more errors by letting Putin’s nuclear bluffs intimidate him out of sending Kyiv more powerful weapons (only to time and again see the light months later).

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 behind support for Ukraine — yes, even at the expense of his partisan domestic agenda — is at least as high.

Honor your oath of office, sir, and put the national interest ahead of your partisan ones.