You can read all sorts of analyses about President Biden’s State of the Union address today, but my brother Seth summed it up last night in a single tweet: POTUS is kicking ass and taking names.
As for my reaction, the president delivered exactly the kind of speech he had to, full of energy his detractors claimed he doesn’t have. It was also packed with progressive ideas about how to make life better for Americans, an excellent counterpoint to the extremists on the other side. The recent avalanche of criticism and worry-warting about Biden from both conservatives and liberals helped to set expectations very low, and he exceeded them bigly. He presented independent voters and distressed Democrats a reason to vote for him — a vivid picture of his accomplishments, agenda, and aggressive democracy, as compared to Trump’s reverse-gear hate-driven fascism.
President Biden did have a few stumbles over his own words — a problem often caused by him speaking too fast — but none of them were serious gaffes, and he handled the hecklers well. He displayed the stark contrast between himself and his opponent over Ukraine and Putin. He spoke out forcefully against continuing Republican efforts to further diminish women’s reproductive rights. While the portion about Israel and Gaza — an impossible situation no one has offered a good fix for — didn’t include any concrete solutions other than a floating dock to allow humanitarian aid to get to the Palestinians, he did come out in favor of a two-state solution.
I was quite surprised to see George Santos, who was expelled from congress not that long ago, was allowed on the floor. Apparently, anyone who’s ever served in the Capitol is afforded that privilege forever. But Santos didn’t quit of his own volition and then slink back in the next day a la George Costanza. He was tossed out for repeatedly lying about pretty much everything. Oh, wait, that means he’s still a perfect fit for the Republican party, which is full of morons who think it’s okay to shout out their own nonsense during someone else’s speech.
My favorite part was when Biden accused Trump and his acolytes of continuing to lie about the January 6 insurrection: “My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6. I will not do that. You can’t love your country only when you win.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, sitting right behind Biden, rolled his eyes and shook his head — because he’s an election denying weasel who promotes Trump’s bullshit about that day.
But from his reactions the rest of the night, it looked like Johnson was thinking, “Uh oh, Joe’s killing it. He doesn’t seem old and feeble. He’s even volleying back at our hecklers with quick-witted ad libs. This is not good for us.” Of maybe he was just praying his vengeful god would strike both Biden and Kamala Harris dead right then and there, thus making Johnson president.
Too bad prayers don’t work. But speeches like Biden’s do. Game on.