I had a track meeting last night, and sped home to watch the State of the Union (SOTU) address. I had just enough time left to stop and buy some snacks on the way in. It\u2019s not quite the National Football League, Bengals versus Chiefs. But for someone who\u2019s followed politics almost since birth, SOTU is definitely \u201cgame time\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you follow NFL football, the Bengals have a young quarterback who is unflappable. Joe Burrow, \u201cJoe Cool,\u201d sets playoff records. His patchwork line struggles to protect him, and last year Burrow was sacked more than any other quarterback ever in a playoff game. And they still won. Burrow got bowled over, smothered, smashed: then popped back up and threw his next pass halfway down the field for a touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Biden is a little like Burrow, a \u201cJoe Cool\u201d; and it\u2019s not just the aviator sunglasses. In his career, and life, Biden has been bowled over. But now at the end, Biden gave all of us sixty-somethings hope. He won the Presidency at seventy-eight years old. Biden\u2019s \u201cgaffes\u201d are a political legend in Washington, and with forty-five years on \u201cthe field\u201d, Biden has made plenty. So as a fan of the \u201cBiden Team\u201d in this SOTU, I always worry: will the Biden gaffe raise its awkward head again? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This game was a setup for the President. He isn\u2019t Barack Obama, with soaring rhetoric reminiscent of Lincoln. Biden is a plain-spoken man, punctuating his text with \u201c\u2026look folks\u201d and \u201creally, I mean it\u201d. And he knew that he faced a hostile crowd to his left (\u201c\u2026but they\u2019re really right,\u201d he said). Gone are the days when the President\u2019s Party claps and cheers, and the opposition Party politely sits on their hands. Our current Congress more closely resembles \u201cQuestion Time\u201d in the UK Parliament. The opposition has no problem booing, jeering, and calling out in the middle of a Biden sentence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember when we were all so shocked by the Congressman from South Carolina who yelled out, \u201cYou Lie\u201d to President Obama? Well there were plenty of yellers on the Republican side last night, including newly empowered Marjorie Taylor Green. She made sure the cameras could find her, as she hollered \u201cLIAR\u201d from the back of the chamber. When that happened to Obama, the whole room stopped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Biden intentionally baited the raucous opposition into reaction. Biden quoted Rick Scott, the Republican Senator from Florida and Campaign Committee Chair. Scott has a plan to \u201csunset\u201d Medicare and Social Security. And when Republicans, especially Green, squealed that Biden was \u201clying\u201d, he turned the play; \u201cWell I guess we all agree then \u2013 Medicare and Social Security aren\u2019t on the table for cuts\u201d. The Democrats broke out in cheers. In football it\u2019s called a \u201cdraw play\u201d, when the opposition is faked into thinking pass, and at the last minute it\u2019s a run. Touchdown for Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden laid out the vast successes of his first two years in office. He touted the infra-structure bill, the \u201cchips\u201d act, the \u201cburn pit\u201d bill, and the other legislative wins. He hailed the international coalition standing against Russia in Ukraine. Biden set the table for negotiations over the debt ceiling. And he talked about the changes America needs to make in policing, in women\u2019s health rights, and in LGBTQ rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden laid out his vision for an America that stands for the middle class, where the poor get a \u201chand up\u201d, and the rich pay their fair share of the tax burden. He made it clear that he is willing to negotiate, and that if he can get Americans to work together, \u201cThere is nothing we can\u2019t achieve\u201d. It was noisy, it was raucous, it was very different from other SOTUs. But it was all Joe Biden, cool under pressure; even taking his own good time leaving the chamber. This \u201cJoe Cool\u201d signs autographs too, and even has a story for the two retired Supreme Court Justices. Score a victory for Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scene then switched, from the noisy Congressional floor to the empty living room of the Governor\u2019s mansion in Arkansas. Newly minted Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republican response, always a tough job. In the name of Marco Rubio, there were no water bottles present. Where Biden described a bustling, energetic world where the government offered help and hope, Sanders\u2019 world is dark and quiet and scary. There is a criminal around each corner, you need a gun to protect yourself, and the government threatens to rip citizen\u2019s rights away. Biden\u2019s world is bright with hope, Sanders dark with dread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n