- President Biden is already fighting for his political life after disastrous debate
- Our poll shows there are even more doubts about his ability to lead the country during a crisis
The fate of the world hung in the balance for 13 days. JFK had imposed a blockade on Cuba after surveillance revealed that a Soviet missile base was being built on the communist island in 1962.
War was only averted when Moscow sent back its ships, cementing Kennedy’s image as a forceful leader who stood up to the Soviet Union.
It had been a grueling experience. As First Lady Jackie Kennedy later said, “It seemed like there was no waking or sleeping.”
But now only one in four voters believes President Joe Biden has the stamina to do the same and stay awake for 48 hours during a similar crisis, a new poll for DailyMail.com has found.
The survey found that voters are more concerned that his advancing age will jeopardize his ability to do his job than when we last asked the question in March.
JL Partners surveyed 1,000 likely voters about whether Biden could fulfill his presidential duties, such as attending national security briefings and keeping up with Vladimir Putin.
And it comes as he faces intense pressure to surrender the Democratic presidential nomination after a disastrous presidential debate with Donald Trump in Atlanta, Georgia.
This week, during a meeting with Democratic governors, Biden even spoke about his advanced age.
According to sources, he told his staff not to schedule any more appointments after 8pm so he could get more sleep.
When JL Partners asked 1,000 potential voters whether they thought Biden could hold out during a crisis like the Cuban missile crisis, only 24 percent said yes.
Just 38 percent said they believed they could remember the name of a world leader they spoke to (down from 46 percent in March), and a similar number said they believed they could process their daily national security briefings (down from 43 percent).
About 37 percent believed he could withstand an hour-long meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin (up from 43 percent in March).
And only 35 percent think they can remember the names of key employees (40 percent).
But whoever is sworn in as president in January will face a series of national security crises and growing global uncertainty.
The war in Ukraine is now almost three years old, China is increasingly flexing its muscles in the Indo-Pacific region and the consequences of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 are still being felt in the Middle East.
President Joe Biden is fighting for his political life after a poor debate performance in Atlanta. He is seen here in the Situation Room with his national security team in January
Whoever wins in November, the world is uncertain. Here, Israel’s Iron Dome is seen intercepting a rocket fired from southern Lebanon.
The war in Ukraine rages on. Soldiers test a UR-77 mine clearing vehicle in Donetsk Oblast
In March, voters said Trump would be better able to handle a range of tasks than Biden
The result is that four in 10 likely voters in our poll said they were concerned that Biden’s age would increase the likelihood of an attack on the US.
James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, said the numbers were terrible for Biden.
“What voters want most of all from their politicians is strength: strength to stand up for America, strength to confront America’s adversaries, strength to get domestic affairs done,” he said.
Biden was already underperforming on that front, and now he’s underperforming.
“It has taken the focus off of Trump’s conviction and completely muted any negative impact of it. Biden’s strategic goal — to remind voters of Trump’s negatives through the aftermath of the conviction and then the debate — has failed.
“If voters think you can’t do the job, nothing else matters — not even your opponent’s unpopularity.”
The results of the online poll were supplemented with a survey of 1,000 likely voters, including telephone contact.
This showed that Trump has increased his lead over Biden from four percentage points in March to six percentage points now.