President Biden’s State of the Union Was a Pivot. Did You Catch It?
Were a president to stand on the Congressional dais and applaud the idea of “buying American” while reminding the country that “freedom will always triumph over tyranny,” most observers might assume it was Ronald Reagan and we were back in the 1980s. Indeed, in her response to President Biden’s state of the Union, Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa claimed Biden wanted to take us back in time to the early 80s…which was of course when Ronald Reagan was president. But the president on the dais last night was Joe Biden, telling Americans to come together to fight an evil tyrant and to pull together to make America strong.
Equally incongruous was the sight of Democrats chanting “USA! USA!” while their Congressional Republican counterparts remained silent. The only notable exceptions to their silence were when President Biden criticized the tax cut under his predecessor which gave nearly $2 trillion in money to the wealthy and to corporations— at which point a good number of them actually booed—and an outburst by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who began heckling the President about Afghanistan right as he spoke about his late son Beau.
While the speech went through a litany of progressive causes without expanding much on them, everything from voting rights to LGBTQ+ legislation, Biden also didn’t spend a lot of time on numbers or actual policy beyond new initiates to battle Covid. Nor was it the moment for that. Faced with a shocking land war by Russia in Europe against a peaceful neighbor, and with the nation just coming out of an exhausting surge in virus cases and deaths, President Biden’s task was simply to seek to bring the country together and offer some hope for a way forward.
On this he appears to have delivered. CNN polling taken right after his address showed 71 percent of watchers approved while 29 disapproved of the speech. In the same poll, 67 percent believed the speech would help move the country in the right direction, while 33 percent believed it would send us in the wrong one. A YouGov/CBS poll showed similar results, with 78 percent approving and 22 percent disapproving of the speech. The poll also found that most Americans felt the speech made them feel the pandemic was mostly behind us (54 percent) versus still with us for a while (46 percent), and that 67 percent said the speech made them feel optimistic.
The polls show a more rosy picture than the nation as a whole because Democratic viewers were reportedly 11 percent higher than they are in the actual electorate. But at a moment when Biden’s approval numbers are at a nadir, the speech—along with the war in Ukraine and the end of Covid mask mandates—could prove a pivot point for his presidency.
By most key measures, from unemployment to job creation to GDP growth, President Biden has scored high marks. But inflation is a great wrecking ball; most families don’t so much care if their neighbors have jobs if the price of gas, rent, and food are also through the roof. This of course is not a problem limited to America. Inflation has hit the entire world economy and the war in Ukraine is only likely to exacerbate price pressures, especially as oil hits new highs well above $100 a barrel in trading. But voters don’t so much care or understand the reasons behind high prices and simply take out their frustrations on those in power. With jobs and the recovery appearing more solid, look for the Federal Reserve (where Republicans are holding up key appointments) to take aggressive action in the coming year to raise rates and cool the economy.
Many things would have to align, from the war to the pandemic to the economy, in order to give Biden a chance to return to positive approval numbers territory. But for the first time in many months, there are now core messages for Democrats to rally around: the battle against tyranny overseas, a return to work, schools and normalcy at home, and good-paying American jobs created by the infrastructure bill. Underlying all of this is an important effort by the White House and Democrats to recapture the concepts of freedom and patriotism which have long been the province of Republicans.
Boebert & MTG were acting like two drunk girls at a party. The "Look at me" girls who always have to have the attention, center stage, to act like idiots in their drunkenness. Perhaps they should watch videos of themselves acting drunk and unruly, and ask if they'd accept that behavior from the other side of the aisle if it was their own Cheeto Mussolini making a SOTU speech. So tired of their antics and disrespect.
The stock market today seems to be signalling its approval.