What to Expect at the State of the Union Address
Plus: Who are the guests this year?
The State of the Union is a rhetorical opportunity for the president like none other in the regular calendar: It provides free airtime to brag about accomplishments and admonish opponents with the entire country watching. Hardly anyone ever remembers what was said after, but they do often remember how it was said.
It’s also a moment for ambitious younger members of the opposition party to respond in their own forgettable way. Being memorable as a respondent is almost always a bad thing, as a thirsty Marco Rubio, long-walking Bobby Jindal, or spittle-mouthed Joe Kennedy III could tell you. (I hope someone has passed this advice along to this year’s Republican respondent, Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama.) For the rank-and-file member, the SOTU is an opportunity to give a memorable gift to a constituent or political ally by bringing them along to see it live. (More on that in a moment.)
Following a standard template, Biden’s address will likely focus on two things: What he’s accomplished in spite of Republican dysfunction, and what Republican dysfunction has prevented him from doing. Biden is likely feeling general election–related pressure to demonstrate his mental acuity while touting the accomplishments he hopes will register with a voting public that continues to demonstrate little knowledge of them: an economy that’s pumping like a piston through historically low jobless rates, cooling inflation, increased manufacturing, and record oil production.1
Achievements having been touted, opponents will need to be exhorted. Biden will likely single out House Republicans. Their recurring failure to pass a budget—a cycle broken only yesterday when they finally passed a group of spending bills following several near-shutdowns, notwithstanding the fact that we have just six months before the end of the fiscal year—is a weak point in Republican defenses where Biden can press his advantage hard.