FINALLY!
I have been pushing for Joe Biden to get in the game…..
Not just I….
A LOT of ‘WE’ are extremely Happy and Relieved to see the guy we saw last night show up….
Make the speech of his life and even hang around and show he’s got the stamina to finish the race to November…
People gotta stop taking replacement….
Joe Biden IS IN IT for the homer…..
Heck it was good?
Trump’s TruthSocial media network crashed….
And the counter to Biden was just plain terrible….
This morning President Joseph Biden was splashed across the media headline….
NOT Donald Trump….
And?
The first ‘snap/flash’ poll…..
A CNN flash poll found that 62% of State of the Union viewers say President Biden’s policies will move the U.S. in the right direction.
…
President Biden delivered an energetic and impassioned speech that was as much a campaign kickoff as it was a State of the Union, leveraging what is expected to be one of his largest audiences of the year to make a forceful case that he was fit enough for another four years.
Mr. Biden has rarely been called a bold orator. But he arrived on Capitol Hill on Thursday with the benefit of mercifully low expectations after unrelenting Republican attacks on his mental and physical fitness.
This was not a typical State of the Union. The speeches are often a laundry list of accomplishments and an equally long set of promises. Instead, this was Mr. Biden framing the year, just as his White House and Wilmington-based advisers want, as a stark choice between two candidates.
He opened with Donald Trump. He closed with Mr. Trump. And in between he taunted and teased the Republican lawmakers in the chamber who were protesting and jeering, readily taking the bait — and even one person’s pin — to score political points of his own….
…
Unlike a traditional State of the Union address consisting of a laundry list of policy goals, Biden started assailing Trump less than four minutes into his speech, blasting him for suggesting that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that did not spend enough on defense.
“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today,” Biden said. “What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time.”…
Yes….
President Biden went POLITICAL against some Republicans in his speech to Congress and the Nation…
When Biden called for providing Ukraine weaponry, Johnson again nodded, ultimately offering some applause.
Biden added: “My message to President Putin, who I’ve known for a long time, is simple: We will not walk away.”
Johnson again nodded and clapped gently….
…
The speech highlighted a Republican Party that often struggles to toe the line of Trump and the most animated portions of its base. Republicans in both the House and Senate have proven bitterly divided over a series of issues — in ways that Democrats simply aren’t, with the glaring exception of Gaza. And with all factions of the GOP gathered Thursday night, Biden was only so happy to highlight those divides.
Indeed, despite Biden pointing to a series of positions that appear to have strong support — and even earning some apparent approval from Johnson on some of them — the speaker had a telling response on Fox News afterward.
“I mean, the State of the Union, there’s always some partisan elements to it, but there’s normally applause lines that everyone can join in on,” Johnson said….
image…Axios
Chris Cillizza
@ChrisCillizza
The dominant storyline going into Joe Biden’s speech last night was could he even deliver such a long address. Like, was he physically and mentally up to it?
By any standard, he proved he was MORE than up for it. He was forceful. He was clear. He was agile on his feet (responding to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s jeers).
You could not like the policies he proposed but there is NO way you could leave that speech and think that Biden is doddering or fading.
NONE.
Which is a massive win for he and his team.
My full analysis of Biden’s SOTU speech is in my JUST-PUBLISHED newsletter.