It is Wednesday 2 March as I write, the morning after President Biden’s State of the Union address. I sat down to watch the speech last night after not having done so for many years. I felt obligated last night, what with a global pandemic, a cratering stock market, and European war all on the docket. I am not a fan of Joe Biden as an orator, and the State of the Union speech is pretty much a waste of time no matter who delivers it. As I watched, I realized that my boycott of the speech was not—as I thought it had been—a reaction to simply not being able to stomach Trump. As I thought through things, I realized I stopped watching during the Obama Administration. Now Barack….that dude could give a SPEECH! He rarely said anything I agreed with, but man, he sounded pretty up there! No—I stopped watching because of the ridiculous theatricality of it, the visitors in the First Lady’s box, the rising and clapping and booing and hissing. It really is a sublime waste of time.
But last night I decided to watch. I didn’t make it ALL the way through, but I got most of it. Here are a few thoughts in no particular order of importance:
When George W. Bush used to give speeches, I would sit on the edge of my seat waiting for the next slip up, mispronunciation, or malapropism. And I really LIKED him. He would reliably screw something up once or twice a speech and he’d get SAVAGED for it by the press. But folks, compared to Biden, Bush was a regular Demosthenes. Joe Biden AT HIS BEST was a bad speaker, and now that he’s pushing 80, he is—well—even worse. Last night’s deliver—outside of the first ten minutes—was terrible. Right of center media is (rightfully) raising the low quality of Biden’s oratory, but interestingly, there is little of that in the mainstream media.
Speaking of pushing 80 (or 82 as the case may be), I watched Nancy Pelosi during the course of that speech and my goodness, that woman is SPRY! She must have popped out of her chair twenty-five times WHILE CLAPPING. At that age, most Americans AT LEAST need to use their hands, and more likely get help up out of a chair. Nancy is clearly doing her squats.
The part of the speech added to the beginning that covered the Russo-Ukrainian War was excellent. It was clear, it was strong, and it should be well-received. I was proud of him and its delivery.
In that portion of the speech, the President made a distinction between US forces fighting Russia in Ukraine (not gonna happen) and US forces defending NATO allies (every foot of NATO territory, I believe was the term used). Since what he brought up would effectively constitute World War III, it would have been nice to hear him announce a round of military spending increases designed to build the readiness and capacity of the Armed Services. No such announcement was forthcoming, nor was there anything in the speech to indicate that he has much interest in national security matters writ large. This is troubling; very troubling.
He did a good job reciting the things his team has done well, and to the extent that this (farce of a) speech is about doing so, he did fine.
The largest portion of the speech was devoted to the President kvetching about elements of his unsuccessful “Build Back Better” initiative that he’d REALLY like to have if only the bad people in the Congress would give it to him. They are no more likely now than before, and if the polls are to be believed, the entire program is dead.
One has to wonder whether Big Pharma is the Devil or the Savior. Either they are an industry that is rapaciously ripping off insulin patients or the wonderful people who saved us from a deadly virus. There was a bit of whipsawing going on there. Same for the oil industry.
In my view, the President missed a great opportunity to recast his sorry lot toward the middle, to go with the “Fund the Police” thing along with “fund our troops and diplomats and spies” and “rethink our silly stance on domestic oil production in a time of great supply uncertainty” and “it’s time to take off our masks and smile at each other”. But he didn’t, and so he’s chosen the political ground he’s going to fight on in ‘22, and every Democrat in the House and a bunch in the Senate are going to have do defend a steaming pile of merde.
The bottom line though, is that the State of the Union is….ok. That’s my assessment. We’ve pretty well weathered the COVID virus, the economic hits it brought on APPEAR temporary, and as long as Russia/Ukraine does NOT become World War III (BIG “IF”) the world should be able to weather THAT economic storm. We don’t spend enough on our own defense, I’m all for building roads and bridges and airports and train tracks, and we need a couple of thousand more drones at the IRS to process my tax return(s). But other than that, things are ok. Just ok, but ok.