President Biden delivered his second State of the Union address to a packed House chamber on February 7. After an embarrassing reference to Senator Chuck Schumer as the Senate “minority leader” at the top, POTUS hit it out of the ball park.
Using a “punch list” supplied by Punchbowl News, I can report the number of times he used the following words or phrases:
“Where’s the Republican plan?” : once
“Folks”: 7 times
Mention of his father or mother: twice
Chinese spy balloon: once
The war in Ukraine: twice
Protecting social security and Medicare: twice
Inflation is cooling: twice
Ending public health emergency: once
Vladimir Putin: twice
Universal background checks: once
Speaker Kevin McCarthy: once
Twelve million jobs created: once
Russian aggression: once
Securing the border: once
Xi Jinping: once
“My predecessor” : once
“Dreamers”: once
Gas prices are down: once
Loud interruptions from the Republicans: 5 times
It might be unfair to Biden’s speech writers to say that the foregoing list discloses what he said but you can surmise his remarks about each topic on the list.
The interruptions (seven is all I heard but a lot of grousing and impolite mumbles did not make it to the microphones) permitted Biden to successfully negotiate from the rostrum, right then and there, the exclusion of any reductions in Medicare and Social Security from any deficit reduction proposals the Republicans might make in tandem with the debt ceiling increase. Republican outliers take note.
I wish that C-Span could be freed to feature member behavior at the State of the Union as they were during the Speaker votes. As it was, we got some of the flavor of the dissenter deportment. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s preposterous fur coat looked like it came from an outlet store in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Rep. Greene has put herself in the de facto House Republican leadership by frequently heating her petulance to a boil as she did with her destruction of decorum on Tuesday night.
Whither Biden? While indications of old age are apparent–not aided by a life-long stutter–the president was masterful in stating the case for his achievements and therefore the need to “finish the job” in a second term. Uncharacteristically, Biden never said “I’m not joking” nor did he use the word “decency.”
Those features of a typical Biden speech shall return!