The commentators were right yesterday when they said Pres. Biden’s State of the Union address would be more a performance than a speech. And despite my intent, that’s more or less the way I watched it.
I was pleased and greatly relieved to see him come across as strong, determined, and energetic. This was no doddering old man. He looked good, eager, happy to be there.
I enjoyed the President’s “performance” but was greatly distracted by Kamala Harris’s constant jumping up to applaud. She was doing what vice presidents have always done on these occasions but, perhaps because I don’t like her, I found it particularly annoying.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was more interesting to watch. Sometimes smiling faintly, perhaps indulgently, and sometimes frowning. A slight disapproving shake of his head when hecklers yelled, violating his instructions to maintain decorum. Rarely, he applauded — usually with his hands out of sight. He stood and applauded only twice — and probably hated doing that. But most of the time, generally speaking, he surprised me and managed to look reasonably pleasant.
The crowd shots were the most interesting visuals. Democratic women were conspicuous in white. George Santos(!) was seated in the back (yes, I looked it up and having once served in Congress, he was entitled to be there). Only one shot of the Supreme Court justices, and not all of them were there (no time to see who was missing). A bunch of military officers with a gaudy show of ribbons, pins, and whatever else high ranking military people wear. A row of Republicans remaining staunchly in their seats while furiously chewing gum (real class there). As usual, Democrats were on their feet applauding every few sentences (and that got really tiresome) while Republicans remained seated throughout.
All in all I was relieved and reassured about the President’s fitness and clear-headedness. My only regret is that Election Day is so far away. There’s a lot of time left for people to forget this evening and for the President to misstep, blunder, misspeak, and otherwise lose some of the ground gained last night.
I was impressed, too. Biden was forceful, sometimes angry, other times just passionate. I hope this persuades some people that he’s still sharp.
What he didn’t appear to be was old and incapable, and that was SO important.
Agree on Harris’s annoyingly excessive enthusiasm, and Johnson’s restraint. That this event is so theatrical these days is a sad thing overall.
I think her job was probably to be the cheerleader and cue the crowd, but she was extremely distracting and I’m sure the audience could react properly without her. I’ve seen lots of complaints (mostly Republican) that the speech was too political when it is actually supposed to be a report on the state of the union. Personally I was just happy to see an active, cogent, engaged President, no matter what he said.