JOSH MARSHALLToday I wanted to share with you my take on last night’s State of the Union address. It was unexpected, surprising and probably the best State of the Union address I’ve seen in more than 40 years of watching them. It was not at all what I thought we’d see.
Quick Take on Biden’s Speech
Originally published: February 7, 2023 11:35 p.m.
Watching State of the Union addresses is one of my least favorite parts of what I do at TPM. I find them a mix of tedious and stressful to watch. By and large they don’t matter. I’d prefer not to watch them. But it’s part of the job. This was very different from any of the State of the Union addresses I’ve seen in 40-plus years of watching them.
Joe Biden isn’t a particularly rousing public speaker normally. The first 10 or 15 minutes of his address were fairly boilerplate, occasionally halting. The substance was pitched toward mid-sized and small towns in post-industrial America. This was unsurprising but well-executed. But then it went somewhere entirely different, not in substance but in presentation, energy and tone.
I don’t need to describe the speech to you because you presumably saw it. Here are the two points that stood out to me.
Radar
Jon Tester is undecided about running for re-election (Daily Beast)
Colorado Democrat seeks 2024 rematch against Rep. Boebert after narrow loss (NBC)
Fox News must face Smartmatic’s lawsuit over election-rigging claims (Reuters)
