On the midwinter evenings when presidents go to the U.S. Capitol to speak before a joint session of Congress, the state of the union is almost always said to be strong, even when it doesn’t seem so. The line was delivered again Tuesday, near the very end of President Joe Biden’s first formal State of the Union address, despite the frayed condition of the union and the peril around the globe.
The SOTU event, with its special guests of honor, gratuitous rounds of generally partisan applause and (wink) oratorical rules of three, has become so predictable as to court irrelevance. Yes, the coming year’s policy priorities are presented and correlate to a budget proposal, but the general shape of those things is known in advance, with battle lines well-etched.
Even so, the address felt acutely consequential this year. A presidency is what happens when the leader of the free world is busy making other plans. Though Biden’s purported torpor is an overused trope of his detractors, every president must demonstrate the intellect and energy to adapt to the whirl of events, and the State of the Union is a prime opportunity to do so. On Tuesday, Biden rose to the occasion in his way. As is typical of his speeches, he stumbled over the connective tissue and rushed the transitions in his enumerated lists, but presented moments of true conviction with a patented combination of certitude and sotto voce.
Biden won election in this tribalized nation due to voters’ exhaustion from the scorched-earth style of his predecessor and the common enemy of COVID, yet for many his own style already has worn thin. One reason is the administration’s withdrawal last year from Afghanistan — an outcome the public wanted, but not in the botched manner in which it occurred. Another is the high inflation souring the experience of an otherwise strong economic economy.
Meanwhile, the fast-moving and fearsome developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine have supplanted it all, forcing Biden’s speech to undergo a late restructuring and compelling Americans to grapple with a change in dynamics for which they may not be truly prepared.
Our brief assessment of what was transmitted from the halls of government on Tuesday:
• On Russia and Ukraine:
The events of the last week have affirmed the importance of Biden’s efforts to repair relations with America’s global allies. In short order, the world has built a substantial response to Russia’s aggression, including economic isolation for that country and humanitarian aid and weaponry for Ukraine, whose sovereignty Russia has violated. Going forward, Biden urged Congress to approve more such support from the United States. He vowed to make Russian leader Vladimir Putin pay a price in order to deter further transgressions. Putin’s comeuppance is as yet, however, a hopeful outcome — despite Ukrainians’ inspiring resilience — with Russian troops amassed near Kyiv and given global disinterest in direct military engagement with a nuclear power. Biden did not engage Americans on the full costs they may one day incur.
• On the economy:
Inflation is, in many ways, beyond the president’s ability to alter, even if the political consequences are his to suffer. It was important for Biden to acknowledge the pain, and he did. But while he outlined plans to encourage fairness in pricing and taxation, and to strengthen supply chains and manufacturing in America, the presto-chango factor is open for debate. Inflation is most effectively influenced by the decisions of the independent Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
• On the pandemic:
That the president and most of his audience in the House chamber were maskless for the duration was a show of progress against the pandemic. Yet the administration’s responses have sometimes been behind the curve, and it might merely be said that Biden has been present as the pandemic has continued to evolve. Looking forward, the president promised a continued emphasis on vaccines for the U.S. and the world and due preparation for the inevitability of new variants. Perhaps surprisingly, he came down firmly in favor of people returning to work in person, refilling America’s downtowns. Workers’ concurrence may vary.
• And the rest:
Of note, Biden struck the only balance that can reasonably be struck on public safety, police funding and accountability: “Let’s not abandon our streets. Or choose between safety and equal justice.”
Biden was the candidate deemed most likely among Democrats to evolve the country’s direction and demeanor away from the recklessness and disunity of President Donald Trump. Only half of that necessary change has been achieved, and only tenuously.
