President Biden comes out fighting
And why are the Ernst and Reynolds endorsements for Donald Trump so weak?
If you didn’t watch President Biden’s State of the Union address last night, suffice to say: He came out fighting.
For those who worry Biden is too old, he gave a forceful answer.
Biden’s speech lasted more than an hour. He laid out his agenda, jousted with jeering Republicans and generally seemed to relish the challenge. It was good political theater.
If you’re pressed for time, just watch the first 20 minutes. You’ll get the idea.
Biden made it clear he believes much of what is at stake in this election is freedom. Defending our democratic freedom at home. Defending reproductive freedom for women and their families. Standing up to Russia, so freedom is preserved around the world.
He also laid out a vision that includes lower drug and housing costs, making billionaires and corporations pay more taxes and dealing with border security.
Biden didn’t shrink from attacking Donald Trump, though he didn’t mention him by name. But 13 times he called attention to Trump’s malignant impact on this country.
If you don’t think that Biden’s performance made a difference in his political prospects, all you had to do was just look at the headline on the Fox News website Friday morning. “Past presidents’ speechwriters call Biden’s address an ‘utter disgrace’ and ‘unprecedented.’”
This is all the proof you need that Biden’s speech was a gut punch to MAGA.
Frankly, as political a speech as it was, I was struck by how tepid the opposing reaction was from Iowa’s Republican leaders.
Take Sen. Joni Ernst. Her response included the usual complaints about Biden trying to lower student loan costs and helping promote electric vehicles. (Gotta shill for ethanol.) But she offered no positive vision for how to deal with America’s problems. And she offered no real support for Donald Trump, her party leader.
Ernst backs Trump. There’s no doubt about that. But just look at the words in her endorsement on Wednesday. “We must beat Joe Biden and get this country back on track. Donald Trump has my support,” she said in a tweet.
“Has my support?”
Not exactly enthusiastic, is it? She also was the last Republican among the Senate GOP leadership team to endorse Trump.
People in the media are making much of Biden’s challenges with this base, but Trump has his own difficulties. A New York Times article a couple days ago pointed to continued failings in the suburbs and among moderate and independent voters, problems that were masked by his overwhelming victory in the MAGA-dominated GOP primary.
These are the kind of problems Gov. Kim Reynolds surely worried about when she argued for much of last year that Trump can’t beat Biden. Reynolds also threw her endorsement to Trump on Wednesday, but it too lacked punch.
In a tweet, Reynolds bashed Biden and promised, “I will do everything to defeat him and elect Donald J. Trump for President of the United States!”
See what I mean? Where’s the enthusiasm for Trump?
Reynolds has no choice. The Iowa Republican Party is a subsidiary of MAGA, and she has to get in line. But these two endorsements weren’t convincing.
One good State of the Union speech won’t erase Biden’s lousy poll numbers, including in states like Michigan. But the Biden campaign’s pitch has been that once regular Americans who don’t live and breathe politics every day grasp that Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee, then this race will finally come into sharper focus.
We saw that begin Thursday night with the loudest salvo yet in what is going to be a full-on campaign to contrast Biden with Trump. And make no mistake, raising fears over a second Trump presidency will be a major part of the campaign. Trump is a threat to freedom around the world and at home. This, as much as anything else will motivate voters.
Still, people also want to believe in the person for whom they’re voting. And Joe Biden, with his feisty and, yes, political speech last night took a big step toward engaging Democrats who have spent weeks fretting about this rematch. Biden didn’t erase all the doubts about his age or about some of his policies. But he did frame this rematch in terms that remind people what’s really at stake in 2024.
No doubt, this will be a close election. And while many people didn’t want a Biden/Trump rematch, it is clear now with Super Tuesday and the State of the Union behind us, these are our choices.
The next eight months will be brutal political warfare. But it’s important for Democrats and other Americans who are horrified at the idea of Trump becoming president that they put aside their misgivings and meet the threat Trump represents to the US and the world. What Biden did Thursday was tee up the challenges facing us this election season—and in the process went a long way to assure doubters he is up to the task.
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Sen. Ernst's own personal experience and her past advocacy for awareness and prevention of sexual asault in the military may explain any tepidity, real or preceived, on her part about endorsing our 45th president's to become only the second chief executive other than Grover Cleveland to serve nonconsecutive terms. As far as Gov. Reynolds, well, it's hardly a secret she backed Gov. DeSantis. After all, Biden was the second or third choice of many from among the thundering herd of Democratic candidates in 2020 and everyone coalesced around him. Same's happening now. It's just the coalescing is a little more onerous, particularly on the GOP side -- not just hold your nose but pinch your nose through a COVID mask.
The sitting president pretty much laid out the stakes and he sees them last night. I read Speaker Johnson encouraged decorum and a modicum of respect during the president's speech -- maybe to not give President Biden a foil to play off of as much as maintaining traditional decorum. But Speaker Johnson did not applaud the president on arrival, nor did Biden allow the speaker to introduce him -- he just went ahead with this speech. Quid pro quo.
Rep. Greene looked like a contestant from Let's Make a Deal rather than a member of Congress. And, sorry Dems, whenever I hear a chant of "Four More Years!" I think of President Nixon in 1972.
This was a pep rally -- like putting fans of opposing sports teams in a big room and let them chant, jeer and grimace at one another. Kind of reminded me of a high school football game, or a sports bar in Iowa on CyHawk game day.