A year ago, the US President’s State of the Union address centered heavily on the Ukraine war. Now it sounds like an election campaign. But not everyone thinks Biden should run again.
Joe Biden has not yet officially announced whether he will run for a second term in 2024. But tonight gives a taste of what the US president’s re-election campaign might look like. The Democrat uses his official State of the Union address in the US Congress on Tuesday (local time) for a very introspective address to the American people. Hardly any foreign policy – a few sentences about Ukraine, a few sentences about China. Instead, a lot of domestic politics up to credit card fees and seat reservations for families on airplanes. Biden is close to the people and pragmatic. Can the oldest US president of all time create enthusiasm for a second election attempt?
For an hour and twelve minutes, Biden reels off the previous political successes of his term of office without any major confusion: such as huge investments to stabilize the economy, modernize the ailing infrastructure and fight the climate crisis. It’s about giving people back their jobs and their dignity, their pride, says Biden. Economically things are actually not bad in the USA. Unemployment is at its lowest level in more than 50 years. High inflation – at times one of Biden’s biggest domestic problems – is on the wane again.
62 percent against a renewed candidacy
Only: the population looks back on the past two years with significantly less enthusiasm than the president. In a recent survey by the Washington Post newspaper and the ABC broadcaster, 62 percent of Americans said that Biden had “not achieved very much” or “little or nothing” in his presidency to date. 62 percent of the population said they would be “dissatisfied” or “angry” if Biden were re-elected in 2024. And even among Democrats, 58 percent said they would rather have another candidate in the next election.
Enthusiasm has also been dampened among party celebrities: So far, all high-ranking Democrats have said that Biden must make the decision about a possible further candidacy himself. And if he wants to compete again, then you stand behind him. Enthusiasm sounds different. Some party colleagues make no secret of the fact that they would like a younger, more dynamic candidate. Even the significantly better performance of the Democrats in the congressional elections last November than expected did not silence these voices.
Biden just an interim president?
There were quite a few who initially saw Biden as an interim president – as someone who would bring Donald Trump to rest, unite and stabilize the country after four years – and then hand it over to the next generation. But Biden seems comfortable in his powerful position. And in his speech to both chambers of Congress, he makes it clear that he still has some plans.
“I ran for president to fundamentally change things, to make sure the economy works for everyone,” Biden said. He came to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America, the middle class, and to unite the country. He wanted to “bring it all to an end”. “Get the job done,” Biden repeated again and again in the speech – also and especially in the appeal to the Republicans to help him or at least not stand in his way.
For the first time with Kevin McCarthy in the back
It is Biden’s first State of the Union address before a congress in which Republicans call the shots in either chamber. You have taken control of the House of Representatives. And so this time, behind Biden, next to his deputy Kamala Harris, is Republican Kevin McCarthy, the new powerful Chairman of the House of Representatives. While Harris constantly jumps up for applause, McCarthy sits demonstratively most of the time, only getting up a few times to politely applaud Biden.
In the next two years, the President will not be able to bring about much in the way of legislative projects with the new majorities. Even if he appealed to the Republicans’ sense of responsibility during his speech, non-partisan cooperation for the good of the country has become a rarity in the United States. Parts of both parties are downright hostile to each other.
“Liar!”: Interjections from the ranks of the Republicans
Biden’s speech was accompanied several times by heckling from Republicans. One spoke out particularly often: the party’s right-wing MP, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Once she yells at the President: “Liar!”
Biden’s predecessor Trump, who is the only prominent US politician to have officially announced a presidential candidacy for 2024, is commenting on Biden’s speech live on the Twitter replacement Truth Social, which he co-founded. He describes Biden as weak in leadership and scoffs at his competitor.
Ex-Trump spokeswoman holds counter-speech
And the former Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is now governor of the state of Arkansas and holds the official counter-speech from the Republicans, denies Biden any suitability for the office. Biden’s weakness endangers the country and the world. “He’s just unfit to serve as Commander-in-Chief.”
But there are also doubts in his own party as to whether Biden is the right man for another four years. Biden has a problem: he can deliver as much content as he wants – at the point where even his well-meaning party colleagues are bothered – his age – he can’t change anything. Biden would be 81 in the 2024 election, 82 at the start of a second term, and 86 at the end of his presidency. That’s difficult to reconcile with messages of change. Some of the party left had hoped for “bold and exciting visions” from Biden’s speech. It remains to be seen whether he has convinced her.
Recent Washington Post/ABC poll of Biden’s tenure to date Poll of Biden’s potential candidacy 2024 speech manuscript by Biden