What was supposed to be a domestic policy State of the Union speech from Joe Biden turned into an oration about Ukraine, a more inspiring approach than just touting the economy and again pitching warmed-over legislation.
The president would have committed political malpractice had he not seized the moment, but at the same time he had little choice. The increasingly brutal Russian invasion of its sovereign neighbor has riveted the attention of the world, and the president was not about to miss the moment after spending months rallying the Western alliance against the attack he warned was inevitable.
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President Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Washington. (Associated Press)
Plus, heroes and villains always play well at the State of the Union.
The downside is polls indicating a third of the country doesn’t much care about the plight of Ukraine. But it’s still a better theme -- dramatic and morally uplifting -- than yet another appeal for the Build Back Better bill.
Of course, we got that too.
But the president got several standing ovations on both sides of the aisle – so rare these days – as he declared Vladimir Putin "isolated from the world" for his "totally unprovoked" attack, his economy "reeling," while "we are united." He joined NATO allies in closing American airspace to Russian planes, an announcement he obviously saved for Tuesday night. Such lines as "he’ll never weaken the resolve of the free world" resonated under the dome. And a shout-out to Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., in the first lady’s box, was a nice touch.
Pivot to Scranton
Then came the pivot to the original speech, starting with his dad in Scranton.
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Biden boasted of creating more than 6 million jobs, the strongest growth rate in over 40 years, and drew scattered boos for a shot at the Trump tax cuts. He hailed the infrastructure law, thanking his Republican friends who voted for it, and ticked off its wondrous bounties to come (fixing 65,000 miles of highways!).
Bowing to one of his greatest weaknesses, Biden said his top priority was to get prices under control – by lowering the deficit. That’s quite a rhetorical stretch for a president who has spent trillions to boost the economy, and is asking for trillions more – but it’s a bit of narrowcasting aimed at appealing to Joe Manchin.
This would be done by what Democrats call investments – and others call Big Government – on such matters as energy conservation and child care. He didn’t talk much about his plan to raise taxes, except to say the rich and corporations should "pay their fair share" and it won’t hit those making less than $400,000 a year.
Laundry-list time
Soon it was laundry-list time–a nod to interest groups that no president can resist – punctuated only by Biden’s frequent invocation of "folks." Boost Pell grants, raise the minimum wage, cut prescription drug prices.
Republicans, as would be expected, sat on their hands.
President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Washington. (Associated Press)
On Covid, the president admitted the country was "tired, frustrated and exhausted," but said we’re moving "back to more normal routines." He touted the CDC’s updated mask guidance, which came weeks after nearly all states eased their mandates but conveniently in time for this speech. (The Capitol also dropped its mask rule.)
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From a crackdown on crime, to another fruitless appeal to pass the voting rights bill, to an equally fruitless pitch for gun control, to siding with LGBTQ and transgender people, Biden hit the hot buttons from a Democratic perspective. Katanji Brown Jackson got a couple of sentences.
Biden did draw bipartisan applause by declaring "our kids need to be in schools."
President Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Washington as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi look on. (Associated Press)
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The speech got dizzying at this point, an effort to cram in every possible program, proposal and plan.
It was, in the end, a slog, a workmanlike address, well delivered by Biden standards, that will change very little in this era of partisan gridlock.
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What lifted it above the routine were the opening minutes, when he embraced the cause of the brave Ukrainians on which, despite past finger-pointing, there is little partisan disagreement. That, depending on what happens, may be the defining moment of Biden’s second year in office.