2 hours ago, Outlaw said:

Great is pushing it. And yes he had some good bipartisan talking points. Also his "fund” the police got raucous cheers…except from a big swath of his own party. I think it was good and better than I expected, but not great. 

I tend to agree.

Let's be honest, Biden's ceiling for these things is what, a B? He's not a guy who's ever been good at it. His strength is relationship building and being able to sit down with Republicans across the table and get them to at least have a good faith conversation (at least behind closed doors).

With that being said, I think he delivered a perfectly decent conventional SOTU without giving the right much to queef about, touched on their list of issues, was emphatic about some coffee table issues (we're going to FUND the police, and we're going to press on buying American), and marginalized the crazy wing of his party while still acknowledging some of their more palatable issues.

He's never going to deliver an Obama type speech, nor is he going to be a bomb thrower and red meat giving entertainer like Trump.

He's a decent hearted boomer with a stutter who believes in America, who has moved with the times better than most of his contemporaries, and within those parameters he did about as well as he could. Which is still like 80% of an average Obama speech, but pretty good by Biden standards.

2 hours ago, Outlaw said:

Great is pushing it. And yes he had some good bipartisan talking points. Also his "fund” the police got raucous cheers…except from a big swath of his own party. I think it was good and better than I expected, but not great. 

ill agree with this, and considering the last few, good is an amazing turnaround. 

 

 

Quote

State of the Union: Our Take

Though Joe Biden addressed a joint session of Congress last year, that is not considered a State of the Union address, which therefore makes last night's speech Biden SOTU #1. The assembled crowd of dignitaries, minus designated survivor Gina Raimondo, listened to the President speak for just over an hour, which is middle-of-the-road for SOTUs, but is pretty brief by Biden standards.

Here's a rundown of the subjects that stuck out most to us, in the order they appeared:

• Ukraine: Most SOTUs don't start with a lengthy portion on foreign policy but, then again, most SOTUs aren't delivered a week after a major nation invaded one of its neighbors. Biden offered the expected laudatory words for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his fellow citizens. He also asked Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, to be in attendance, and had her stand to be recognized. In addition, quite a few members of Congress were wearing blue and gold. Those are the colors of UCLA, of course, although the members politely claimed they were honoring Ukraine, whose flag also happens to be blue and gold.
  
  The SOTU is time for the sitting president to take a few victory laps, and Biden certainly did in this segment. For example:

  We spent months building a coalition of other freedom-loving nations in Europe and the Americas to the Asian and African continents to confront Putin. Like many of you, I spent countless hours unifying our European allies. We shared with the world in advance what we knew Putin was planning, and precisely how he would try to falsify and justify his aggression.

  That's definitely braggadocio, though it's pretty restrained by SOTU standards, and at least Biden acknowledged the efforts of others in addition to his own work. Not all presidents in recent memory did that.
  
  Of course, the flip side to praising Ukraine is slamming Russia, and Biden also did a fair amount of that. The basic notion was that Putin screwed up, he's paying the price now, and he'll pay even worse in the future. "When the history of this era is written," Biden remarked, "Putin's war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger." The President also announced that American airspace will be closed to all Russian flights, thus turning the screws a little bit more.
   
• American Rescue Plan/Build Back Better: Again, as is wont to happen with SOTUs, Biden took his bows for the legislation he helped get passed, in this case the American Rescue Plan. He managed to turn that into a twofer, simultaneously poking Republicans in the eye: "Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefited the top 1 percent of Americans, the American Rescue Plan helped working people—and left no one behind." That got one of the loudest rounds of applause from the Democratic side of the aisle. There was a tad less enthusiasm on the Republican side.
  
  That said, the President was less interested in collecting laurels, and more interested in using this high-profile opportunity to try to reboot Build Back Better. He laid out an updated version of the plan, with a price tag of $1.5-$2 billion, and asserted that "Seventeen Nobel laureates in economics said my plan will ease long-term inflationary pressures. Top business leaders and, I believe, most Americans support my plan."
  
  Of course, it is neither Nobel Laureates nor most Americans to whom Biden was speaking. He was primarily addressing himself to one member of the audience who, in an... interesting choice, was sitting on the Republican side of the gallery. Afterward, Sen. Joe Manchin (D?-WV) quickly pooh-poohed the President's proposals, saying "I don't know where that came from," and that "There might be parts they want to talk about. I don't know. That was a little bit far." The Senator also firmly disagreed with those 17 unnamed Nobel laureates in economics, observing "I've never found out that you can lower costs by spending more."
   
• COVID: The modern president ignores polls at their own peril, and as a 50-year veteran of the arena, Joe Biden knows that well. If there were any doubts on that point, they were laid to rest by portions of the SOTU that were clearly crafted in direct response to public opinion. The COVID section was one such portion. While the President pointed out that there could be new variants of the disease, and promised that he and his administration would do everything possible to be ready for them, the dominant message in this section was "time to move on." Specifically, he declared: "Because of the progress we've made, because of your resilience and the tools that we have been provided by this Congress, tonight I can say we are moving forward safely, back to more normal routines."
   
• The Police: This was another area where Biden has clearly been paying close attention to the polls, and possibly to folks who say that wokeness is killing the Democratic Party. Among other things, the President declared: "We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It's to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training. Resources and training they need to protect their communities." Anyone who says the Democrats aren't aware of their messaging issues, and aren't trying to do whatever they can to fix them, is just not paying attention. The problem is not that the Democrats don't get it, it's that the opposition party and its sympathetic media are so very effective at using the views of a few (generally more extreme) Democrats to tar the entire Party.
   
• Supreme Court: Given that this should, and presumably will, be a major feather in Biden's cap, it was surprising how very little he said about the Supreme Court. The President recognized Stephen Breyer for his service, said a few complementary things about Ketanji Brown Jackson, and then moved on. Presumably he thinks that he'll get plenty of kudos at such point that Jackson is confirmed, and doesn't need to overdo it right now.
   
• Health: The last 10-12 minutes of the speech were given over to a number of proposals related to health and healthcare, which is quite a bit more than one might have expected. Biden talked about some of the standard Democratic policy positions, like giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, but he particularly focused on cancer. This is understandable, since he has a personal connection to the horrors wrought by the disease (his son Beau died from cancer, which the President noted), and since cancer is something of a signature issue. Biden said he wanted to do more, in particular, to help fight cancers that are particularly common in veterans, and he also floated a few of his newer policy proposals, such as the creation of ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
  
  While Biden was speaking about his son, he was heckled by a notable female Republican representative from Colorado. Very, very classy. He was heckled on another occasion by that same member, and also by a notable colleague of hers from Georgia. We thought we should mention it, since it got a fair bit of attention, particularly on the news programs. However, we're not using these two members' names, because they don't deserve the cheap publicity that they are so shamelessly willing to pursue, no matter how inappropriate their behavior is. How sad it must be for someone's entire brand to be "obnoxious."

On the whole, the speech was a solid double. Hopefully it's OK to use a baseball metaphor, especially since it appears metaphors are the only baseball we're going to get for a while. This SOTU is not going to blow anyone's socks off. But Biden hit his marks, rarely stumbled over his words (though he did once substitute "Iranian" for "Ukrainian"), and was in command of the room. And apparently he even improvised a bit. Reportedly, a portion about banning assault rifles was not followed by the question "You think the deer are wearing Kevlar vests?" until Biden added it in the moment.

Ultimately, a solid double is pretty much all that Biden could have realistically hoped for. He's not Barack Obama, and never will be, barring a very unusual remake of the movie Freaky Friday. Further, SOTUs are just a laundry list of talking points, and are not known for being memorable. If the President can get a few of his ideas out there and circulating more widely than they were, then that's a win for him. And we think he likely pulled that off, particularly with his remarks on Ukraine, and possibly with some of his proposals for health and healthcare.

Of course, we can only speak for ourselves. Let's now see what others think... (Z)

 

20 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

He's a decent hearted boomer 

 

Never really heard anyone refer to Biden as a Boomer. He's more or less in that Silent Generation group born between the world wars.

5 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

Never really heard anyone refer to Biden as a Boomer. He's more or less in that Silent Generation group born between the world wars.

Technically. But if you had to communicate his generation and values you'd probably use boomer not silent generation, there just isn't a generally understood value proposition for someone from the silent generation.

 

7 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

Technically. But if you had to communicate his generation and values you'd probably use boomer not silent generation, there just isn't a generally understood value proposition for someone from the silent generation.

 

This is true in the sense that they're not clearly defined and seemingly fluid, but I think that that in and of itself is probably a defining characteristic of that generation. The Boomers themselves were originally far left, and today, they seem to either have retained a large degree of countercultural sensibilities or, surprisingly, have swung hard right and now gravitate towards Trumpism and conspiracism. My grandparents are squarely in the Silent Generation group (born right in the middle of the Depression), and I can definitely draw some parallels. Biden and his ilk seem genuinely caught between the values of the Boomers and the Greatest Generation in that they retain a lot of those Old Left penchants for liberal internationalism and New-Deal style social policy, albeit in a more austere and levelheaded manner and with more patriotism and adherence to traditional social mores than the succeeding generation.

38 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

I tend to agree.

Let's be honest, Biden's ceiling for these things is what, a B? He's not a guy who's ever been good at it. His strength is relationship building and being able to sit down with Republicans across the table and get them to at least have a good faith conversation (at least behind closed doors).

With that being said, I think he delivered a perfectly decent conventional SOTU without giving the right much to queef about, touched on their list of issues, was emphatic about some coffee table issues (we're going to FUND the police, and we're going to press on buying American), and marginalized the crazy wing of his party while still acknowledging some of their more palatable issues.

He's never going to deliver an Obama type speech, nor is he going to be a bomb thrower and red meat giving entertainer like Trump.

He's a decent hearted boomer with a stutter who believes in America, who has moved with the times better than most of his contemporaries, and within those parameters he did about as well as he could. Which is still like 80% of an average Obama speech, but pretty good by Biden standards.

Agree with this. Nicely put John.

3 hours ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

While Biden was speaking about his son, he was heckled by a notable female Republican representative from Colorado. Very, very classy. He was heckled on another occasion by that same member, and also by a notable colleague of hers from Georgia. We thought we should mention it, since it got a fair bit of attention, particularly on the news programs. However, we're not using these two members' names, because they don't deserve the cheap publicity that they are so shamelessly willing to pursue, no matter how inappropriate their behavior is. How sad it must be for someone's entire brand to be "obnoxious."

Was that worse than Grandma Nancy tearing the SOTU speech up on camera while the President spoke? I'd say no, though it was definitely unclassy (not something Bobert and MTG are known for anyway).

Just now, Outlaw said:

Was that worse than Grandma Nancy tearing the SOTU speech up on camera while the President spoke? I'd say no, though it was definitely unclassy (not something Bobert and MTG are known for anyway).

 

He was speaking about his dead son and dead troops, so yeah, I'd say it was a lot worse.

2 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

He was speaking about his dead son and dead troops, so yeah, I'd say it was a lot worse.

They started yelling before Beau's name was mentioned. But like I said not classy at all. But I bet you cheered Pelosi on when she did her absurd grandstanding. Point is there's idiots on both sides. I agree with the article's stance to not mention their names...they're idiots like AOC.

Didn’t vote for Biden or Trump, but how can you not support your President ?  I gave Trump support early on figuring he’ll get the best to help him.  Didn’t work out that way.  Is Biden getting the best and brightest  ?  Not sure, but until he goes off the rail like Trump did, he’s my President.

Glorious

 

 

#winning

 

It was entertaining as Psaki drew everyone's attention to the fact that Biden was the Vice Pres. when Russia took over Crimea. 

 

4 hours ago, toolg said:

#winning

 

Putin did most of that heavy lifting. All Biden had to do get back into the White House. 🙄

19 hours ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

He was speaking about his dead son and dead troops, so yeah, I'd say it was a lot worse.

I think she was too.

19 hours ago, Outlaw said:

They started yelling before Beau's name was mentioned. But like I said not classy at all. But I bet you cheered Pelosi on when she did her absurd grandstanding. Point is there's idiots on both sides. I agree with the article's stance to not mention their names...they're idiots like AOC.

 

You're really trying to avoid this one, and your Pelosi comment reeks of whataboutism. Pelosi's thing didn't strike me too harshly one way or another. A lack of decorum, sure, but nowhere on the level of what those two just did during a comment about dead troops. This also rests on an asinine false equivalency between Biden's character and Trump's. The guy literally spent 4 years doing everything he could to wreck the foundations of our republic and tear apart our social fabric.

7 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

You're really trying to avoid this one, and your Pelosi comment reeks of whataboutism. Pelosi's thing didn't strike me too harshly one way or another. A lack of decorum, sure, but nowhere on the level of what those two just did during a comment about dead troops. This also rests on an asinine false equivalency between Biden's character and Trump's. The guy literally spent 4 years doing everything he could to wreck the foundations of our republic and tear apart our social fabric.

Lol. Of course it's whataboutism. I said what they did is classless. But if you rewatch they started yelling about the 13 dead military members BEFORE Beau was even mentioned. Still...complete lack of class. I'm not defending those two morons. However, I got the Nancy speech shredding out there to see if you were as willing to call her a classless hag as well. You didn't. She is directly on camera showboating while the President spoke. If McCarthy was behind Biden doing that the other night, people would want him shot. 

 

Quote

 

Two Cheers for Normal

By KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON

 

March 3, 2022 10:10 AM

• The masks are off, people are traveling again, there’s Russian nuclear blackmail, and a prominent Illinois politician has been indicted on 22 counts of federal racketeering charges. Things really are back to normal.

 

10 minutes ago, Outlaw said:

Lol. Of course it's whataboutism. I said what they did is classless. But if you rewatch they started yelling about the 13 dead military members BEFORE Beau was even mentioned. Still...complete lack of class. I'm not defending those two morons. However, I got the Nancy speech shredding out there to see if you were as willing to call her a classless hag as well. You didn't. She is directly on camera showboating while the President spoke. If McCarthy was behind Biden doing that the other night, people would want him shot. 

So he hadn't actually spoken his son's name yet, whatever. He was still talking about troops dying from contracting cancer on the job. I try to use words with particular accuracy. I said that Pelosi's deal lacked decorum, I would struggle to call it completely "classless." And, as I recall, she tore it up after Trump stopped speaking, and there was actually some poetry in the move as Trump was a neofascist scumbag where every speech reeked of his debased character. Tearing up the speech was taking a shot at the speech itself. Boebert used those dead troops as a platform.

19 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

So he hadn't actually spoken his son's name yet, whatever. He was still talking about troops dying from contracting cancer on the job. I try to use words with particular accuracy. I said that Pelosi's deal lacked decorum, I would struggle to call it completely "classless." And, as I recall, she tore it up after Trump stopped speaking, and there was actually some reasonable poetry in the move as Trump was a neofascist scumbag where every speech reeked of his debased character. Tearing up the speech was taking a shot at the speech itself. Boebert used those dead troops as a platform.

You realize they were yelling about the 13 dead troops from Kabul, right? Again, they're hags but context matters.

11 minutes ago, Outlaw said:

You realize they were yelling about the 13 dead troops from Kabul, right?

 

Yes, I thought that was established.