Going into his 2024 State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden was facing what the press called a coordinated Republican effort to paint him as too old and mentally declined to hold the job.
Biden tried to disprove those charges by angrily yelling for more than an hour.
The media loved it.
STATE OF THE UNION LOWLIGHTS: ‘WE HAVE EXCLUDED LOBBYISTS’
Time magazine’s Philip Elliot trumpeted “Biden Just Delivered a Top Career Performance. He Needed It.”
“The grin was as wide as ever, the step carried a bit of bounce, and he looked plenty rested,” Elliot gushed. “For Republicans who for months have sought to cast Biden as a doddering old man, Thursday’s speech was a sharp rebuke to that hit … Biden understood the assignment and aced it.”
The Associated Press: “When asked about his age and how it affects his ability to be president, Biden’s stock answer is: Watch me.
“On Thursday night, he delivered … a high energy, forceful speech, and at times he taunted Republicans with ad-libs … It was also a rejoinder to criticisms that Biden is too old to keep serving as president.
And after the speech, many in the media claimed it was a success because most viewers liked the speech, according to a CNN poll.
But really it was perhaps the worst-received State of the Union in history. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote a good analysis:
The 65% approval rating on the speech was the worst approval rating on record — by a lot. The 35% who were “very” positive about Biden’s speech was also the lowest on record.
It turns out that reporters and editors, who overwhelmingly loved the speech, were not representative of the populous.
STATE OF THE UNION LOWLIGHTS: ‘AXIS OF EVIL’
And that’s why this horrible speech was a perfect microcosm of Biden’s presidency. He was very much a candidate of CNN and the New York Times. He took cues from media elites as to what was popular. This is one reason he went woke in office. This was one reason he thought he could run despite his evident debility.
The State of the Union and the aftermath foreshadowed his rise and fall.
