State of the Union speech was Biden’s strongest performance to date

Tuesday’s State of the Union speech did not so much mark a pivotal moment in US politics, but it certainly gave the impression that America had reached a moment of change. Or perhaps the word is “possibility”.

Joe Biden framed the 118th Congress as a chance for America’s leaders to “finish the job”; a phrase as much about challenging Republicans as it was about underlining the work done in the first two years of his presidency. He uttered the phrase repeatedly throughout his seventy-plus-minute speech and it was clear why. This was a president feeling good about himself. It was reflected in the performance, being one of Biden’s better – or perhaps best – appearances of his presidency, as well as the years leading up to his presidency.

Going into last night, questions had been raised about his age, his occasional gaffs behind the microphone, and his propensity to stutter which has always been there but has recently been read as a marker of his decline. Last night had none of that. He can do little to dimmish the effect of the passing years and those questions will rightly dominate the next year. Yet last night’s performance will also present Democrats with a bit of a problem if they’re looking for justifications to replace him come 2024.

That decision will be tough for Democrats who can always manage to pull a loss from the mouth of victory. Last night, for example, questions could be raised about some of their decisions. With big stories dominating the US news in the past year, there were plenty of ways they could frame the evening simply by choosing the right guests. So, wisely, the Bidens had invited the parents of Tyre Nichols. Paul Pelosi was also prominently there. The guests symbolised two of the biggest stories of the past two years, around police violence and the threat to democracy. This was sensible and good politics.

Yet viewers might not have been wondering about those guests because they were too busy thinking: “Isn’t that Bono?”

And, yes, it was. Sitting right in front of the First Lady was one of the most divisive entertainers in the world; for many people, a symbol of the hypocrisy of the super-wealthy lecturing ordinary folk on how to live their lives. No doubt the good causes he supports justifies Bono’s place, but the optics were plain bad.

Not so much another misstep as it was a “what the hell?” moment, Kirsten Sinima again proved that she’s in politics to make it all about herself by doing an impression of a daffodil by wearing a big voluminous-in-the-shoulders dress in an extremely lurid yellow. Thanks to the Democrats gaining a seat in the house, she’s less of a variable and all the problems have shifted to the House where Republicans don’t look particularly amenable to compromise. Still, she was a reminder that Democrats are, in their own crazy way, a very diverse caucus.

Otherwise, there were few missteps in an evening when Biden fell into a very comfortable role. He was personable and eloquent, even when he moved off script. One sensed he was in a place he knew and loved. This was Biden the Creature of the Senate. This was old-school politics and not a moment of it was spent dwelling on the dumb, broad culture war issues that had preoccupied his predecessor.

A great deal of it was scattergun – the pie-in-the-sky thinking that all politicians engage in – but often it involved hard detail about bridges, roads, the climate crisis, chip fabrication, supply lines, drug costs, police reform, electric charging stations, tax credits, public education, unionisation, red-flag laws to prevent gun violence… He asked that “we give public school teachers a raise” and that the costs of insulin be capped for everybody. “Let’s finish the job and cap the cost of insulin at $35” he pleaded on an issue he’d have hoped to have resolved by now. He then turned towards the Republicans and aimed a dig at them: “Big Pharma is still going to do very well, I promise you” he said with a teasing smile.

Soft then hard, high then low, accommodating and then firm: this was Biden exploiting the Democrat’s strength which lies in their ideological flexibility, and the Republican’s weakness in that they’re chained to hardliners who offer no such dexterity.

“Ban assault weapons now!” cried Biden, picking up one of the best points of leverage they have and where Democrats speak for the majority in America. Not that the majoritarian position was reflected in the response across the floor.

One of the questions going into the address was whether Republicans would heckle. The only question is why that was ever a question. Speaker Kevin McCarthy had begged his side to keep quiet, but he should have known that, of course, they would heckle! Sitting in the audience was Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who has leaned heavily into the insurrection narrative. She has filmed TV ads holding a sniper rifle whilst speaking crudely about Biden and the Democrats. Was there any doubt that her voice would be heard coming from the floor?

That happened when Biden turned to the subject of healthcare, accusing Republicans of threatening people’s social security. That’s when the voice Greene cut through the jeers to add “liar” into the mix. Others were less polite. Somebody shouted “bullshit”. Biden responded with a big grin. This was exactly what he wanted. He told Republicans to “contact my office” if they wanted proof of what he was alleging. He was loving it.

Not that everything was greeted with silence from Republicans in the room. Biden announced that all materials used in US federal projects will have to be made in America. “Made in America” he reiterated. Republicans stood, as they occasionally did whenever Biden touched on the less culturally divisive issues, usually around infrastructure and growing the economy. They were much less engaged when he reminded them that, last year, his administration cut $1.7 trillion from the deficit compared to the previous Republican administration which raised the deficit for four successive years.

This remains the Republican’s problem. It’s the natural course of politics that voters are always eager for a change – the grass always does seem greener after two years of election ads – but Biden was trying to establish the narrative for 2024. His closing message was “stability over chaos”, underlying how the raucous Republican jeering should have reminded viewers of the chaos of the Trump years. He then moved to his usual themes of America as an idea, a nation in a “new age of possibilities”. We then had the usual formula for these addresses. “Because the soul of this nation is strong, because the backbone of this nation is strong, because the people of this nation are strong, the state of the union is strong.”

He might well be overstating it but it’s certainly in a better position than it’s been.

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