It’s a double for Biden

President Joe Biden’s approval rating is around 37%, which would be a fabulous batting average for a MLB slugger, but it’s about as bad as it gets for a chief executive.

So one goal of Tuesday’s State of the Union address is to lift that number. That’s the prism through which I view, and rate, the speech. It was a double, workmanlike, but lacking compelling imagery and soaring rhetoric. That’s not his style. 

One thing such speeches have, always, is a shopping list of the president’s accomplishments over the year.

He followed that tradition, but not the one that has the president opening his remarks by claiming the state of the union is strong, or united, or something like that. He saved that for his closing, with his voice and energy rising.

Seated in the House, our leaders sat maskless, and a seat apart. 

Biden opened with Ukraine, which was no surprise.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “badly miscalculated” with his unprovoked attack on Ukraine, he has united the West and badly isolated himself.

Biden pledged to not send U.S. forces into combat to support the Ukrainians, but promised to defend every inch of NATO territory.

That was pretty all he had to say about foreign affairs. No mention of his “successful” withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The second half of his 62-minute speech was domestic policy. That was kind of a laundry list of the issues that have driven his popularity into the ground.

He talked about the American Rescue Plan, which did result in more jobs and an improvement in the economy, but he didn’t drive a nail into inflation. “I get it,” he said, adding that one solution was making it in America, which had mild echoes of, um, make America great.

Next up was Covid, which was the disease he was going to beat, and didn’t, although it seems to have run its course. Biden will not get credit for that.

Under the heading of “policing,” rather than “crime,” he said we must “Fund the police. Fund the police.” Then it was attacks on ghost guns, illegal guns, high capacity magazines, and the lack of background checks. Nothing new.

The section on voting rights was brief and boilerplate that we’ve heard before.

The Supreme Court and the border were mentioned, but not much explored. We had the usual tripe about secure borders, from the man who had unsecured them, and a path for citizenship for the Dreamers, which most Americans support. 

He did not say that he also wants a pathway for all illegals, which most Americans do not want.

Then there was the rights goulash — voting, rights for women (meaning abortion, but the A-word was not used), LGBTQ+ rights. It’s doubtful any of this will reverse his bad polling.

He ended with what he called a Unity Agenda, something he thinks we all can agree on.

1-  Beat opioid addiction (but when he talked about “harm reduction” and “outdated laws,” that was a subtle call for “safe” injection sites).

2- Improve mental health.

3- More support for veterans.

4- End cancer.

He might get support on three out of four.

His closing line, delivered with a clenched fist, was, ”Go get him!”

Him? Who? Putin? How?