President Biden’s second State of the Union speech, and his first since the Republicans wrested control of the House from his Party, offered few, if any, surprises.
In what we have come to expect when Republicans and Democrats gather for a session, at key moments, Republicans heckled Mr. Biden with shouts of “liar” and angry shakes of their head. But if the goal was to rattle the president or probe his weaknesses, it had the opposite effect. Mr. Biden is still feisty, he snapped back at the Republican shouters with sharp retorts and even a sense of humor in some moments. When Republicans accused him of misstating their desire to cut Medicare and Social Security, the president turned the heckling against them, saying quickly that he was glad to see their “conversion” on the issue.
For Mr. Biden’s supporters — some of whom have expressed doubts about whether he is up to another six years in office — the moment was an opportunity to imagine how the president will perform on the 2024 campaign trail. For the president’s campaign advisers, his agility on his feet was most likely a source of relief. As became obvious, this speech was a testing ground for a 2024 campaign and a rationale for a second term.
CNN commented that, “House Republicans act as a useful foil as he prepares to announce his intentions for 2024. His jousting on Tuesday was the best glimpse of how he’ll approach his candidacy, at least until a Republican opponent emerges from the GOP primary process.”
In an hour-long speech, Mr. Biden repeatedly pledged that America needed to “finish the job,” a barely veiled argument that voters should give him a second term to do just that. He frequently referred to the accomplishments of his administration: on keeping drug prices low, increasing taxes on the wealthy, making child care and housing affordable, and more — but said he had more to do.
He also aimed to show that he still has the political skills to lead them to victory, despite the many criticisms regarding his age or mental agility. Informal polls show that in 2024 a large majority of Democrats want someone from a new generation (he would be 86 at the end of a second term.)
After a few stumbles at the beginning, the president turned energetic and combative, and even showed flashes of humor and effective off-the-cuff retorts to Republican hecklers in a setting not known for improvisation.
He leaned on what are by now familiar themes: a pledge to “restore the soul of the nation”; a promise to “build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out”; efforts to create “an economy where no one is left behind”; criticism of “big tech” and “big oil”; and references to homespun advice for “Joey” from his father. But there were no major new initiatives in Mr. Biden’s address and no surprises.
Two themes recurred throughout: one was the threat to democracy. The United States and the world, Mr. Biden said, stand at an “inflection point” in history, with democracy imperiled at home and abroad. As he has before, the president linked “the Big Lie” about the 2020 election to the war in Ukraine, which threatens the sovereignty of a European nation for the first time in a generation.
The other addressed the national mood, one that remains downbeat even as the economy improves and the country attempts to return to normal amid the Covid-19 pandemic. He wanted to showcase his empathy, wanted us to know that he feels our pain. “So many of you feel like you’ve just been forgotten,” he said, directly appealing to a demographic that used to vote reliably for Democrats but has more recently turned to the GOP.
“Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you, watching at home,” he said. “You wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away.”
“I get that,” he said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy entered the speech vowing to treat Biden respectfully – and urging his Republican colleagues to do the same. It was a tall order, given the tenuous grasp he has on his conference and the propensity from certain Republicans for stunts, though one needs to remember that Democrats are not innocent of such stunts either, as when Nancy Pelosi famously tore Trump’s speech in half or mock-clapped him.
As lawmakers like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted Biden, McCarthy was silent – but his glare into the crowd spoke for itself. Later he found himself shushing his conference multiple times at outbursts interrupted the president.
White House officials were immensely pleased with the performance: “Couldn’t have written a better moment” one said. Another noted that the substantive back and forth appeared to animate Biden in real time. “He gets energy from his audience,” the official said.
It’s not a new view on how Biden operates – his advisers constantly talk about how he finds his energy from engaging with people. No doubt seen as a good omen for 2024.
