As geopolitical experts warn, Iran's impact on the global stage should not be underestimated.

It seems increasingly likely that, following in Jimmy Carter's footsteps, Joe Biden's bid for re-election might also be thwarted by Iran a scenario dripping with irony, given the current Democratic President witnessed firsthand how Iran precipitated Carter's defeat and facilitated Ronald Reagan's ascent to the presidency, according to geopolitical expert William McGurn, former speechwriter for George W. Bush, in his opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal.

McGurn points out the eerie similarities between the dire Middle Eastern situation preceding Carter's demise and the political climate preceding this year's American elections which does not bode well for the incumbent Democratic leader.

CARTER'S DEFEAT IS HISTORY

On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students took 52 Americans hostage in Tehran, holding them captive for 444 days throughout a full election year, thereby daily reminding U.S. voters of Carter's perceived incompetence. At the time, Joe Biden was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and observed firsthand the damage the Iranian actions inflicted on the president's image.

Whether Reagan would have ascended to power without the Iranian hostage crisis remains unknown; however, there were certainly other contributing factors to Carter's defeat, including runaway inflation and the unexpected Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which initially caught the President off-guard but later prompted a stiffening of his foreign policy stance.

Iran, Afghanistan, and inflation: 45 years later, Biden must now confront this troubling trio of issues.

Despite a series of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Fed not seen for many years, the expert highlights that inflation has still not been brought down to the targeted 2 percent, with figures showing a 3.4 percent annual rate of inflation as of December according to official statistics.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan might still not be a prominent issue in voters' memories, but as election campaigning ramps up, Republicans will likely remind the electorate of Biden's 2021 decision to withdraw the last U.S. troops from the country, which quickly led to the fall of the Kabul government. In the process, 13 American service members were killed by a suicide bomber, and desperate Afghans clung to the exteriors of departing U.S. military aircraft, some falling to their deaths.

THE WOUND OF IRAN IS FRESH

However, the Iranian issue is of current concern: following the recent killings of three American soldiers by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, Biden retaliated with airstrikes. Critics argue that this response was too little, too late, failing to mention the possibility that a stronger earlier action could have potentially prevented these deaths. McGurn cites Trump's successful 2020 operation that eliminated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, temporarily curbing Iran's aggression, as a proper example of decisive action.

Biden's situation has subsequently become particularly challenging.

If he continues to take a lenient approach towards Iran, he risks escalating the country's aggression. Conversely, if he proceeds with a stronger hand, he could broaden the conflict zone in an already volatile Middle East, which could spell political defeat for him and, by potentially driving up oil prices, have a devastating impact on the global economy not to mention significantly diminishing his own re-election prospects.