SOTU: Biden laid a minefield and Republicans walked right into it.

Someone at the White House deserves a raise, and that someone is whoever wrote Biden’s speech last night.  Somebody else deserves a long weekend, and that’s whoever came up with the lowered-expectations campaign that preceded the speech.  I even saw one piece talking about the problem of writing a speech that would contain the President’s stutter.

And the president himself deserves every standing ovation he got. Biden’s speech was powerful.  Almost immediately afterwards, Wolf Blitzer on CNN declared that it was the best speech Biden had ever given, and old Wolf’s covered quite a few of them.

The speech was advertised as a recitation of the accomplishments of the first two years of Biden’s term and a plea for bi-partisanship that would help to “finish the job,” the speech was also a trap set for MAGA Republicans.  Biden promoted his economic policies and listed his and the Democratic Party’s successes, knowing the Republican right-wingers wouldn’t be able to contain themselves, and they responded throughout the speech with cat-calls, boos, and shouts of “liar” – most loudly from fur be-clad Marjorie Taylor Greene.

MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch

Possibly the single best moment of any State of the Union ever. Absolutely masterful.

This clip is a good example of Biden’s minefield working its magic.  He baits Republicans with their threats to cut Social Security and Medicare over the debt ceiling.  When they try to shout him down with boos and a collective denial that they ever suggested such a thing, Biden gives them the thumbs up and congratulates them:  “As we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now.”  Democrats leapt to their feet and Republicans, forced to agree, applauded with them.  “All right,” said Biden, grinning ear to ear.  “We’ve got unanimity!”

The State of the Union, normally a staid affair interrupted only by applause from the president’s party and baleful silence from the opposition, was somehow turned into an American version of the often noisy and contentious British House of Commons.  Biden won the back-and-forth with raucous Republicans.  Polling overnight showed 72 percent of those watching had a positive view of the speech, with 71 percent saying the policies proposed by the President would move the country in the right direction. 

Those are numbers President Biden can run with, and he started doing just that today with a trip to Madison, Wisconsin to promote his economic agenda.  He’ll be in Trump’s and DeSantis’ back yard in Tampa tomorrow.  Vice President Harris plans to visit Atlanta to promote the administration’s clean energy policies, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will be at a Tennessee battery manufacturing facility doing the same thing, while Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will go to North Carolina to push grants for agricultural production methods that will lower greenhouse gasses and increase production.

Sounds like the 2024 campaign is on.