Biden’s State of the Union address, and the day after
It’s tough to be a Democrat right now. President Biden is losing to Donald Trump in most major polls, and the gap only seems to be widening. Most Democratic voters think Biden is too old to serve and core Democratic constituencies, including young, Black, and Latino voters, seem to be drifting away. Things have gotten so bad that some liberals have begun calling on the president to quit the race and throw the nomination into the party’s August convention.
Driving much of the consternation are concerns about Biden’s age, 81, and about his ability not only to govern but also to endure the grueling demands of a presidential campaign. A recent report by special counsel Robert Hur helped elevate questions about Biden’s memory to a fever pitch. But if Democrats are honest with themselves, they’ll acknowledge that the same questions were raised a year ago when Biden declared his intention to seek reelection. The fact that they are being raised again now, just more loudly, only underscores Biden’s inability to quell the worries.
With Trump’s resounding victories in Tuesday’s primaries and Biden’s poor standing in national polls, Biden’s time to right his ship is starting to run short. But there is still time, provided the president, his team, and Democratic voters themselves start displaying the kind of urgency this election so clearly demands.
A core part of that turnaround strategy will require vividly depicting the simple truth that Trump is a corrupt, autocratic, and incompetent bully. It will also certainly focus on the right’s determination to ban abortion nationwide, not just in Republican-controlled states. But all that might still not be enough in this year of discontent and forgetting, when a growing number of voters say they remember the Trump years fondly.
Biden, his campaign, and his surrogates must also find the words to sell the country on his accomplishments, his fundamental decency, and his mental and physical soundness. And they must find those words starting tonight, in the president’s State of the Union address to the nation.
State of the Union speeches are a president’s opportunity to put a high sheen on their accomplishments, and Biden can be counted on to talk effusively about the infrastructure bill that pumped billions into much needed road, bridge, and transit projects; the Inflation Reduction Act that invested boldly in renewable energy programs and lowered prescription drug prices; and the CHIPS and Science Act that is helping rebuild domestic manufacturing of semiconductors vital to US industry and defense. That is a powerful record that all Democrats should be proud of.
Biden will almost certainly trumpet the strength of the economy, which by most accounts, including from many conservatives, has accomplished the soft post-pandemic landing almost no one thought possible. Prices remain stubbornly high for many goods and services, but inflation has dropped almost to pre-pandemic levels while unemployment remains stunningly low. The stock markets have been hovering near all-time highs.
Far more difficult for Biden will be to talk about the migrant crisis that is creating havoc in many northern states, including Massachusetts. He can justifiably blame the Republican House for blocking legislation that would have significantly bolstered border security while also sending $60 billion in military aid to besieged Ukraine. But to convince wavering voters, he must also make clear that he is willing to take bold action to help states whose shelter systems have been overwhelmed by migrants and that he has a strategy for stemming chaos in the system — with or without Republican assistance.
His other major challenge will be to find the right balance in assuring supporters of Israel that the United States remains a solid ally, while convincing young and progressive voters that he is prepared to push the Israeli government to end its devastating invasion of Gaza and chart a pathway toward peace.
He must do all that, and he must be prepared to do it all again and again, because what comes the day after the State of the Union must be every bit as focused and determined as tonight’s speech.
No one is expecting Biden to suddenly behave like the spry 70-year-old he once was. But he cannot sit this campaign out from the White House residence or his Delaware home. He must make regular appearances on the stump, he must address the nation on important issues, he must articulate his policies more clearly, and he should be talking to the press more than he has been, even if it means occasional slips.
A recent appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and interview with The New Yorker writer Evan Osnos can be fairly viewed as less challenging than fielding questions from the White House press corps. But they are a valuable start. As Osnos, a clear-eyed observer, pointed out, “His voice is thin and clotted, and his gestures have slowed, but, in our conversation, his mind seemed unchanged. He never bungled a name or a date.”
Vice President Kamala Harris must also step up. Polls show she is even less popular than Biden, and many voters may believe that if Biden wins, she is likely to be called upon to finish his term. She should be consistently making the administration’s case to wavering progressive and Black voters, and showing her own command of the issues. She, too, seems to be starting down this road, speaking out more forcefully this week about the need for a negotiated cease-fire in Gaza.
It would help the president’s case if his advisers did not try to pretend that everything is going according to plan. No one wants to see panic in the cockpit, but a greater sense of urgency might actually calm some nerves by showing that the Biden team gets it and is on the case, that worried Democrats aren’t just imagining the bad shape of things. As Jon Stewart said of the people who criticized him for making jokes about Biden’s age, “I’m sorry. It was never my intention to say out loud what I saw with my eyes and then brain.”
Finally, it is time for Democrats to begin the process of uniting behind the president. The idea that withholding support from Biden will somehow help Palestinians, or that the nomination should be decided by delegates to the convention, or that somehow Trump will be convicted in one of his four criminal cases before the election, are either false or fading hopes that should be discarded, and soon. The race is on, the president is losing, and much work must be done if the country is to avoid the horrifying prospect of a second Trump administration.