Five takeaways from Biden’s State of the Union address

President Biden delivered his final State of the Union address before the 2024 election on Thursday night.

It was a pivotal moment, a rare opportunity to speak unmediated to the American public, who currently hold the president in low esteem.

According to an average of polls maintained by The Hill and Decision Desk, 58% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s job performance, while only 40% approve.

Biden is trailing by a small margin in November against former President Trump, who won a landslide victory on Super Tuesday earlier this week, effectively clinching the Republican nomination.

Biden overcame a small hurdle of expectations Thursday, delivering a 67-minute speech with vigor and passion.

The main takeaways are:

Biden targets President Trump in campaign speech

For better or worse, it was one of the most colorful political speeches in recent years.

Biden seized the opportunity to make his case with the election just eight months away.

As soon as his speech began, he accused President Trump of “bowing to the Russian leadership” in his recent comments about NATO, without using his name.

From there, Biden pursued the case into January 6, saying Trump and other Republicans tried to “bury the truth” of what happened that day. “I would not do that,” Biden said.

He tried to portray Republicans as captivating the super-rich with taxes. Hostile to women’s reproductive rights, from abortion to in vitro fertilization treatments. and a threat to Social Security and Medicare.

Biden and his speechwriter engaged in several deft conversations, including a reminder that the Affordable Care Act “remains a very important issue.” This alludes to then-President Obama’s famous profane comments about the law.

Republicans protested that the speech was overly partisan. But when you include people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who wore a MAGA hat on the occasion and heckled the president, the point becomes clear. It becomes even more difficult to point out.

The important thing is that Biden took advantage of the glamor of the occasion better than most expected and began his campaign in earnest.

81-year-old president tries to neutralize age issue

Age is the most serious weakness for a president seeking a second term.

Polls consistently show that about 75% of Americans are concerned about the 81-year-old Biden’s ability to serve an effective second term.

Toward the end of Thursday’s speech, Mr. Biden took the issue head on and tried to spin it to his advantage, or at least reduce the scale of his responsibility.

“I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” Biden joked, arguing that his age gives him a broad and truthful view of American history and values.

“People my age see things differently,” he said in a clear attack on Trump, citing qualities such as integrity and integrity. His predecessor, Biden, had hinted that he was focused on “grudges, revenge, and retaliation.”

The age problem will not be solved. And while avoiding any truly disastrous gaffes, Biden did garble a few lines on Thursday.

But at least he did his best to weave a positive narrative around his major weaknesses.

New developments in Gaza as progressive anger grows

Along with the horrific death toll in recent months, the political stakes surrounding Gaza have increased.

Dissatisfaction with Biden’s vigorous support for Israel is particularly strong among progressives and younger voters. However, mainstream Democrats are also beginning to express concerns.

Biden formally announced a new development that the White House had warned about earlier in the day: an effort to use the U.S. military to build an emergency pier on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

The pier is intended to bring desperately needed aid to the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations says more than half a million people face “catastrophic” poverty and near starvation. announced.

Mr. Biden was at pains to stress that “America’s boots will not be on the ground.” Instead, the plan is to build a pier from offshore.

It remains to be seen whether this announcement will ease the political pressure on Biden from the left.

He will also have to contend with the fact that the ceasefire he claims to seek in the Middle East has so far proven elusive.

Attempts to flip the script on immigration

The huge number of migrants crossing the southern border is weighing heavily on Biden’s political fortunes.

On the policy front, immigration is generally one of the two issues, the other being inflation, on which the president scores the lowest.

But Biden and Democrats believe they were handed a political gift when President Trump’s opponents rejected a recent bipartisan border deal that had been months in the making.

On Thursday, Biden criticized Republicans who opposed the deal, noting it would have increased the number of immigration judges, asylum workers and drug detectors.

Biden also emphasized that the agreement was supported by the Border Security Coalition.

When Republicans loudly objected, Biden said, “Look at the facts. I know you know how to read,” and Democrats cheered him on.

Shortly afterward, Biden made a gaffe, mistaking the name of 22-year-old Laken Riley, who was murdered in Athens, Georgia, last month, as “Lincoln” Riley. The man charged with Riley’s murder entered the United States illegally.

Immigration, like age, will remain a burden for Biden. The misspelling of Mr. Riley’s name could also undermine the case he was trying to argue Thursday.

Republican rising star stumbles in response

Responding to the State of the Union is a thankless task.

Typically, reactions delivered alone to the camera automatically seem less impressive than a president speaking in the grandeur of the Capitol.

No one has ever mastered this feat. But Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) fared particularly poorly on Thursday.

In effect, Mr. Britt’s remarks were standard Republican rhetoric.

However, her unique and overly theatrical way of speaking made her reaction stand out in a negative way.

Perhaps he was trying to convey his feelings. Instead, social media was abuzz with claims mocking wrongdoing.

It was a setback for the young senator, who was seen as a rising star in the Republican Party.

On CNN, former Trump official Alyssa Farrah Griffin also complained about the decision to film Britt’s kitchen encounter. This setting seemed to play into sexist stereotypes.