Both were boring. Nothing fundamentally changed because of either one. I don’t exactly understand why Sanders is getting good reviews. Her response was boring and strange. She mostly talked about herself and spoke in cliches when talking about the issues.
One lesson of Joe Biden as a political figure is that it’s stupid to lower the public’s expectation of the level of competence of your opponent. You’d think that would be effective, but it seems to just lower the bar in people’s minds. If Biden puts together an entire speech without a gaffe people call it a good speech, even if it was boring and unconvincing like this one. I have to think that the dementia patient narrative is partly to blame. It didn’t work with Reagan and it’s not working with Biden. Corrupt is a much better angle to attack him.
It appears that heckling from the opposing party is here to stay in these addresses. It’s happened in every recent address I can remember. Now both parties do it. I’m not even saying it’s unjustified, there were parts of that speech where I would encourage walking out. I predict we see that from one or the other party fairly soon.
Biden will run in 2024, and there will be no primary challenger. His campaign will try to hide him like they did in 2020, and that will give Republicans some opportunity. But anyone who thinks that a primary challenge is possible at this point is probably dreaming. What would the argument even be? You would have to buy into a Republican premise to effectively attack him, and that will ire the Democrat base.
His “state of the union is strong” line sort of revealed a knowledge of his own weakness in my view. He phrased it in terms which didn’t speak to the fundamental condition of America, but to its spirit. That because the spirit was strong, the union is strong. That reveals understanding of a deteriorating condition. Perhaps a sign that Biden knows a recession announcement is coming in April?