Biden delivered the traditional State of the Nation speech in a very new setting, says researcher Maria Lindén.
Stateside Joe Biden gave the president’s annual State of the Nation address, which this time was exceptional in many ways.
The Finnish researcher paid particular attention to how energetic Biden’s appearance was compared to what the president has been used to seeing in public lately.
– Biden clearly wanted to refute the claims that he is a frail and frail old man, says a researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Maria Lindén.
As many as 73 percent of registered voters consider Biden, 81, too old for a second term, says of The New York Times the latest poll. An opponent only a few years younger Donald Trump77, the question of age does not weigh as much in polls.
According to Lindén, in his speech, Biden tried to put the cat on the table when it comes to age. The president said that in his career he has been criticized sometimes for being too young, sometimes too old.
According to the researcher, one more energetic performance than usual does not erase already existing images. However, the State of the Nation speech gets such a large audience that it has some significance.
– It is good for Biden that he managed to be dynamic in such a significant speech and look very clearly awake when his opponent calls him Sleepy Joe.
Republicans yelled, Biden snapped back
According to Lindén, the energy was also visible in the way Biden responded sharply to the Republican representatives who shouted during his speech.
According to the researcher, Biden’s team had clearly prepared the president to act in the new operating culture of the Congress, where direct accusations may be shouted at the speaker from the audience.
Nasty answers to the Republicans, probably premeditated, came off the pharmacy shelf.
– Biden had thought, or it had been thought for him, how to respond to intermissions in a way that underlines the failures of the Republicans or their solutions, which do not necessarily please the voters, Lindén says.
– He quite deliberately seemed to provoke the Republicans of the Congress by scolding them directly.
Biden focused on impeaching Trump
After the speech, Republicans criticized Biden for too much partisan politics. According to Lindén, the State of the Nation speech was exceptional, because usually the president focuses on praising his achievements and telling about his future intentions.
This is what Biden did, but he also used a large part of the speech to bash his challenger, Donald Trump. For example, he accused Trump of being the president of Russia Vladimir Putin of humiliation.
– The speech was clearly based on smearing Trump.
According to Lindén, what makes the situation exceptional is that, usually at this point in the election year, the challenger to the sitting president is not yet clear. However, it is already known that Trump, who is completely superior in the Republican primaries, will almost certainly be the party’s candidate in the November elections.
Now Biden had an exceptional opportunity to attack his opponent. Biden did not mention Trump by name in the speech, but referred to the former president as his “predecessor”.
According to US media reports, Biden mentioned Trump no less than a dozen times in his speech.