To note that the president’s State of the Union speech is a gaseously meaningless waste of two or so hours, an instantly forgettable, haphazardly assembled battery of spurious political “achievements” and partisan talking points bereft of any sort of rhetorical power or art . . . to say this is to voice a commonplace, is it not? When is the last time a president made news in one of these speeches? I suppose David Frum is still dining out on having written two-thirds of the phrase “axis of evil” in 2002, but that means it’s been ten years gone twice over since one of these speeches included anything that lasted beyond the half-life of a 24-hour news cycle.
I know several professional colleagues whose approach towards covering the State of the Union adheres to the philosophical practice of Marshawn Lynch, and who can begrudge them their dead-souled cynicism? Biden seems — for regrettably obvious reasons — even more detached from the politics of his own administration or the policy thrust of a State of the Union speech than the average president would (though Trump gave him an honest run for his money in that regard), rendering tonight’s speech even more curiously pointless.
Even if he didn’t inspire such indifference, Biden is a president who faces a Republican House and a narrowly Democratic Senate and might not run for reelection. The next two years will not be an era of great legislative achievements or transformative programs, and, since America is currently surly and inattentive anyway, I suspect that no new sweeping agendas will be set either. I promised myself that I would not get stuck merely analyzing tonight’s speech in terms of the optics — will Biden look peppy and vigorous, as he did in his younger days when he was known to tie an onion on his belt (which was the style at the time), or halting and decrepit? — but I know already I’ll probably break that promise.