But given the low standards of this disappointing annual exercise, Thursday’s speech was remarkable. There were at least three reasons to watch it. First, the world is in flux. It’s on fire in some places. Serious people wanted us to tell them what President Biden thinks about this and what he plans to do.
From that point of view, it was a mediocre speech. Mr. Biden began with a strong note, linking today’s crisis to the moment in 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt accurately warned Congress about the costs of isolationism. “If someone in this room feels this way, [Russian President Vladimir] “President Putin will stop by Ukraine, but I guarantee you he won’t,” Biden said, taking a sharp look at House Republicans who are blocking aid to Ukraine. And he was appropriately tagged for using the words “my predecessor” over and over again, rather than saying the name Donald Trump, to mean “giving in to the Russian leader.” Ta.
But Biden quickly retreated from the world, returning to it only at the end of the speech, long after his persistent fortissimo had begun to harden his eardrums. Biden’s oratorical scale has only two sounds: the sounds of him speaking out loud and the sounds of a few friends speaking. He said the conventional wisdom that is right about China and that the United States is behind is “wrong.” And he addressed the Gaza crisis, a political nightmare stoked by Israel’s pro-Trump leadership, by announcing an intervention to open a pier for humanitarian aid. Both messages arrived late as disposable. It’s hard to imagine that Biden’s love for foreign policy arose despite the emergency situation.
The second reason to ask was timing. The speech came on the heels of Super Tuesday, when the bleak prospect of a rematch between Biden and Trump became inevitable.
As a prelude to the general election, Biden’s speech was surprisingly aggressive. He immediately, ah, punched his “predecessor” rhetorician in the nose and kept prodding. In the process, Biden previewed his own theme. He will cover a souped-up version of a long-standing problem. “Those who boast of subversion” Roe vs. Wade We don’t know anything about women’s electoral influence,” Biden declared with equal disdain for Trump and his Supreme Court nominees.
After abortion rights came health care reform, the Democratic Party’s evergreen. “We have finally won against Big Pharma,” he declared. If reelected, he would pursue price caps on “500 drugs over the next 10 years.” He suggested that the cost of all prescription drugs could be capped at “$2,000 per year for everyone.” How about $400 a month to ease the pain of rising mortgage rates?
No one had to guess where the money would come from. Billionaires and corporations pay a “share of the freight.” So we didn’t learn anything there.
Third (though many Biden supporters don’t want to hear it): The public has questions about a man in his 80s seeking a second term. Watching Biden stand late at night and deliver a speech that lasted more than an hour was a way to seek some answers.
Without a doubt, most people saw what they wanted to see. Biden’s lifelong struggle with a speech impediment is well known. Every speech he’s ever given has been a treasure trove of gaffes, stumbles, and swallowed words, which his friends praise as a sign of courage, while his enemies have Fox segments, viral memes, and Tik Tok can be mined. This speech was no exception.
I was watching and remembering the speech Mr. Biden gave in Washington last July. He was sharp and strong. He nimbly moved between prepared text and ad-lib. In the 35-plus years I’ve listened to Biden speak, that speech was as good or better than any I’ve heard from him. No one called Joe Biden a great communicator.
I think it would be appropriate to describe the audience’s reaction that night as surprised. The audience at this State of the Union address may say the same thing. Mr. Biden was in good spirits. He managed some give and take with hecklers. Chairman Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was clearly dismayed. When Mr. Biden pointed a knife at conservative Sen. James Lankford’s refusal to allow Republicans to vote on his immigration bill, he looked like someone who had passed on a kidney stone. “The Border Patrol union supported this bill,” Biden said as Lankford (R-Okla.) nodded and Johnson squirmed. “It’s a simple choice: fight to fix our borders, or fix our borders.”
Team Biden’s first order of business was to put an end to the murmurings within the Democratic Party that he had somehow thrown the old man out of the car. The State of the Union has been a purpose-driven event for decades, but we managed it. Whether Americans like it or not, Biden is heading to the polls in November.