I have to admit, I didn’t expect anything like this tonight. On the one hand, Biden was as conciliatory as I’ve ever seen a President towards an opposition party. He praised the handful of GOP turncoats who had voted for his legislation in the last year, giving them credit for their bipartisanship, and urging them to join him in the next two ears to continue to move the country forward. In the early moments of the speech, he even gave a shout out to Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, and let him have his moment in the sun.
But at the same time, Biden took a combative stance towards his accomplishments and leadership that I’ve never seen a President take before in a SOTU. And I’m not the only one. Just now Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC called it the single most combative SOTU he had ever seen. And I have to agree with him.
Biden was adamant, and aggressive in presenting the accomplishments of his administration, and he was brooking no bullshit. At one point, he made a point, and Machine Gun Marjie stormed to her feet and cupped her mouth, screaming Liar! Biden confronted her directly, slapping her down while House Squeaker Cave-in McCarthy sat there with his hands in his lap.
But here’s the hidden brilliance in Biden’s SOTU speech. The GOP wanted to hate and revile him, God knows they bhad the pitchforks and torches ready. But every time Biden raised a contentious issue, he laid it out in such a plain spoken, typical Joe way that the GOP couldn’t protest. Ny my count, House Squeaker Cave-in McCarthy spent more time on his feret tonight than any opposition leader I can remember.
Because that’s the way that Biden’s brilliant speech writers laid it out. He laid out a topic that should have been highly controversial, but he couched it in such basic American guiding principles and American beliefs that even the GOP couldn’t resist. He put every issue in such kitchen table terms that even the GOP couldn’t find a way to resist. He basically dared the GOP to prove that their vision of America was better than his.
House Squeaker Howdy Doody is going to be in deep shit with his caucus. McCarthy had previously tipped that he planned to have a proper and decorous attitude towards the President, but sometimes enough is too much. McCarthy tried as hard as he could to sit like a stone idol when he could, but the way Biden couched the issues, so steeped in GOP principles, McCarthy had no choice bot to stand and applaud. Pointedly while his House howler monkeys were on their feet, screaming retorts towards Biden.
My personal take? Watch for Biden’s poll numbers to rise. In all things tonight, Biden came across as just plain Joe, talking to the American people about the issues that really matter to them. I’ll deal with the GOP’s official response to the Biden SOTU in the next article, but at least for tonight, Biden put the GOP behind the 8-ball. Put up or shut up.
GO, JOE!
Funny. It’s seems the Guns Over People party is having trouble with dark Brandon. His eyes were ablazing tonight!
Qevin tried really hard to stay in his chair and not applaud. It made him even more obvious than if he’d applauded like the Ds.
Just for fun, the original name (in Irish) of the squeaker Caoimhín Mac Carthaigh translates as ‘small aristocrat, son of Carthage’
I’d go along with Cato the Elder here “Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam” (furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed)
Oh, and just for yourself Joe, Ó Murchadha (Murphy) means ‘descendant of a sea warrior’
Being even older than the two of us, Biden surely remembers the time when a child would be instructed to go out into the yard and “cut a switch”, which for you young folks was a very thin branch (very thin and flexible) that parent’s who believed in corporal punishment would use to give a child who’d misbehaved a few swats. Thankfully it’s something I never had to do but I knew kids who did, and the worst part for them was having to go out and find the “instrument” with which they’d be punished, and the wait for the actual spanking with it!
Well, the GOP didn’t offer Biden “switches”, they gave him actual tree branches and he whacked them with them! Upside the head! It was a sight to see, and the dumbasses in the GOP didn’t realize in the moment how bad they were making themselves and their Party look to anyone who isn’t one of the thirty-percent who chug orange MAGA Kool Aid by the gallon. I sometimes say I take my entertainment where I can find it and although appalled by the unprecedented level of disrespect shown to the President enjoyed the way he handled it. MAGA might have been writhing around in orgiastic extasy over the display of the crazies but the rest of the country? I think you’re right. Biden’s poll numbers will start to climb, especially as more stuff from the legislation passed by the last Congress kicks in. Better still, the antics of the crazies will inoculate Biden and the Democratic Party against being blamed by the public over a debt ceiling showdown, and possible govt. shutdown.
I agree with most everything you said. The one problem I see, is that a lot of conservative voters view the debt ceiling like maxing out your personal credit card. They don’t seem to get that national economics don’t directly correspond to household finances.
Not only were they unable to stop him, Republicans were practically BEGGING Biden to take them behind the woodshed. The Republicans were like Kevin Bacon in Animal House. “Thank you, sir! May I have another? 😆😆
Yeah. I’m glad they reminded everyone they don’t stand up and clap for democracy! Hey merrick please don’t join the insider joke among prosecutors that Pomerantz pointed out on msnbc, that there’s a chickenshit club. It’s reserved for those who won’t prosecute when the evidence screams for it. Some of these traitors belong in jail just as much as the proud boys and oath keepers. Fact.