The speech: GOP loses the “incompetent” talking point

President Joe Biden closed his State of the Union address by taking on the elephant in the room — his age.

The fact that this came more than an hour into his speech was itself a win, that he got that far with vigor, energy and passion.

He acknowledged that he has been around a long time, but lightly revealed when he was elected to the Senate at 29, he was thought of as being too young.

I await to see how right-wing radio and TV will try to portray him as confused, dazed, and doddering. He was not.

Not to say he doesn’t have those moments — he does.

But that is not the complete story.

Maybe neither was Thursday night.

Although he was there to state the state of our nation, he opened with foreign affairs, and a vigorous demand than the U.S. stand by Ukraine in its death struggle with Putin’s Russia.

He said he would stand against Putin, while his predecessor — as he repeatedly referred to Donald J. Trump — gave Putin a free hand to attack members of NATO.

“We will not walk away. We will not back down,” he said.

He then pivoted to domestic enemies — those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“You can’t love your country only when you win,” he said to cheers from Democrats.

Along the way he slurred words several times, when he spoke too fast, and had a few brief stumbles.

Mixed in with attacks on some Republican positions, he offered a laundry list of Democratic “likes” — gun control, reproductive rights (which truly are nonreproductive rights), minimum wage, voting rights, fighting cancer, controlling AI, retail crime, carjacking, marijuana, tax the rich.

A couple of times he effectively jousted with jeering Republicans — when he clearly knew this would be coming, as he did last year when he outmaneuvered Republicans on Social Security.

Toward the close, he turned toward the briar patch of the Mideast and deftly walked a tightrope.

He pledged continuing support for Israel, while offering humanitarian aid to Palestinians. He called for a cease fire — but only a temporary cease fire, to allow for hostages to be released, and for aid to come in. He called on Israel to cooperate.

In a key domestic point, he pointed to a thriving economy (which most Americans don’t feel), a gain in jobs, low unemployment, all of which he called “the greatest story never told.”

That may be where the GOP can pounce, and will have to, because they lost the narrative that Biden is an incompetent shell.