Source: Politics<\/p>\n
The State of the Union may be one of the most vastly overrated speeches in all of politics. But not this year.<\/p>\n
The address President Joe Biden is set to deliver on Thursday night will come as the president faces intensifying worries about his age and vitality and a host of confounding international crises and domestic challenges. That backdrop has dramatically heightened the stakes for the White House, with millions of viewers tuning in not just to hear the words he utters but how he physically delivers them.<\/p>\n
“Vitality is, of course, front and center,” said Patrick Gaspard, a former Obama official who now heads the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. For as much effort goes into the content of the speech, he added, over the long run “people won’t remember what you say. But they’ll remember how you make them feel.”<\/p>\n
The White House recognizes the significance. It\u2019s planning to use the State of the Union to portray America as in the midst of a historic revival on Biden’s watch, driven by his administration’s efforts to strengthen the working class and build a thriving economy.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s eager to use the address to cast the 2024 race as a critical choice between continuing to expand on that progress \u2014 or tumbling backwards under a Donald Trump presidency that would pose an existential threat to the nation\u2019s democratic principles.<\/p>\n
“It’s high stakes,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. “It’s a coin flip election, and this is the beginning of Biden making his case.”<\/p>\n
Biden and his advisers have long viewed the State of the Union as an early milepost for his reelection run. It offers the president what could be his largest platform before November to show he has the vision \u2014 and the vigor \u2014 for another four years.<\/p>\n
That has become even more critical amid the president’s struggles to shake voter reservations about returning an 81-year-old to the White House. Recent polling has also shown Biden trailing Trump amid broad dissatisfaction with his performance.<\/p>\n
On top of those warning signs, Biden is weathering growing frustration within the Democratic base for backing a war in Gaza that his own vice president has deemed<\/a> a \u201chumanitarian catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Democrats say, the speech has become something of a make-or-break moment for a candidacy in need of fresh momentum for the general election fight ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are, to some extent, waiting to hear what their lives are going to be like if he\u2019s reelected \u2014 and that\u2019s part of what this speech is going to do,\u201d said one Democrat close to the White House, granted anonymity to discuss State of the Union planning. \u201cEven if it\u2019s not an express theme, it must be about who Biden is fighting for and who he wants to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden officials dismiss worries about the president’s polling and electoral odds. They argue that the hand-wringing is overblown and that voters will ultimately reward Biden for executing on an agenda filled with popular policies. The White House believes it has a powerful new political cudgel in the bipartisan border security and migration deal that Republicans nixed at Trump’s behest, along with a recipe for electoral success built on championing reproductive rights.<\/p>\n Biden is expected to hit those notes aggressively on Thursday, arguing that the GOP is standing in the way of efforts to fix the border and aid U.S. allies \u2014 while at the same time threatening individual freedoms like access to abortion and potentially popular procedures like IVF.<\/p>\n The speech is likely to tout Biden’s accomplishments as instrumental to lowering costs and revitalizing the economy. But in a tacit recognition that Americans remain dubious of the administration’s track record thus far, Biden is expected to focus heavily on his plans for a second term.<\/p>\n That includes building on existing efforts to slash drug prices and ease everyday costs<\/a>, as well as newer efforts to more aggressively police<\/a> “price gouging” companies and bolster the working class. Biden will devote a portion of his address to advocating for a slate of tax increases<\/a> on the wealthy and large corporations, Democrats briefed on the matter said, as a way to burnish his populist credentials and draw a direct contrast with Republicans.<\/p>\n By emphasizing that expansive vision, the White House is hoping it can pivot attention toward the policy differences between Biden and Trump that represent friendlier turf than the scrutiny of age that aides complain is often one-sided and excessive.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have two candidates who aren\u2019t that different in age,\u201d said Rep. Robert Garcia<\/a> (D-Calif.), who sits on the Biden campaign\u2019s national advisory board. The difference that voters will eventually come to understand, he argued, is that \u201cthere\u2019s no comparison between their records.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates highlighted Biden’s “proven, experienced leadership,” and said his address would focus on proposals delivering “more unprecedented, concrete results for real people.”<\/p>\n But there’s little question that Biden’s age remains a key vulnerability, one that has been made all the more acute by how limited the president has made his press availability, including the decision to skip the semi-traditional Super Bowl interview. That\u2019s made the State of the Union even more important \u2014 giving the president a rare chance to demonstrate his fitness on a grand stage.<\/p>\n A New York Times\/Siena College poll released ahead of the address found most voters perceive Biden as \u201cjust too old\u201d to be an effective president, including 61 percent of those who backed him in 2020. Those worries cut across all major demographics, echoing other recent polls signaling a shift in the way voters see him.<\/p>\n They also coincide with fresh signs of weakness among Black and Latino voters who rate the economy poorly and say Biden\u2019s accomplishments have done little to personally benefit them, raising the prospect that the coalition he relied on four years ago may fail to materialize this time around.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that the president will use this moment to center the people who are benefiting from the policy and all the great work that we\u2019ve done,\u201d said Rep. Steven Horsford<\/a> (D-Nev.), who has privately urged the White House to shift its economic messaging away from a high-level focus on the nation’s trajectory and toward spotlighting more on-the-ground success stories. \u201cUse those as the proof points for the progress that we\u2019ve made, but also the vision for more bold action.\u201d<\/p>\n While Biden has delivered just a handful of major national addresses, his aides and allies believe last year\u2019s State of the Union \u2014 punctuated by Biden\u2019s spontaneous sparring with Republicans in the audience over Medicare and Social Security \u2014 represented one of the high-water marks of his presidency.<\/p>\n Officials insist they\u2019re not trying to manufacture a similar off-the-cuff moment this year. But they highly anticipate GOP lawmakers will give Biden plenty of opportunity to engage if he wants.<\/p>\n