Biden’s State of the Union Address Was Supposed to Be a Victory Lap, Huh?

The Biden administration expected to take a victory lap at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. Unemployment is low, each month’s inflation rate number is a little less bad than the previous one, they had a better midterm-election cycle than expected, and Republicans seem hopelessly divided on what their actual strategy is on the debt-limit fight. Politico reported this week’s prime-time speech was going to be a soft launch for the 2024 reelection campaign: “Biden is planning to use his second State of the Union address to paint the broad strokes of a likely campaign ahead.”

And then, as Axios put it, “China crashes Biden’s State of the Union speech.”

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Jim Geraghty

Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent of National Review.

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The Biden administration expected to take a victory lap at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. Unemployment is low, each month’s inflation rate number is a little less bad than the previous one, they had a better midterm-election cycle than expected, and Republicans seem hopelessly divided on what their actual strategy is on the debt-limit fight. Politico reported this week’s prime-time speech was going to be a soft launch for the 2024 reelection campaign: “Biden is planning to use his second State of the Union address to paint the broad strokes of a likely campaign ahead.”

And then, as Axios put it, “China crashes Biden’s State of the Union speech.”