President Biden Delivers His First SOTU Speech Where He Speaks On Ukraine More Than The U.S.

Amid a backdrop of 40-year-high inflation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a falling approval rating within his own party, President Joe Biden delivered a State of the Union address which went as many expected. In his speech, Biden couldn’t decide if he was a modern FDR with a revolutionary progressive agenda or a bipartisan bridge builder promoting moderate legislation.

In terms of sheer political theater, the speech was well executed. Sure, the energy was about what you would expect from a 79-year-old president, and he made one major gaffe in accidentally saying Iranian instead of Ukrainian early in the speech. Biden used the Russian invasion and the tradition of vague State of the Union addresses to get the speech over with rather than leave Americans with something powerful and memorable.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is clearly a tragedy, proved to be the bailout the Biden administration needed and utilized. Not letting the tragedy go to waste, Biden spoke more about the state of Ukraine than the state of the union to begin his speech.

Biden spent the first 12 minutes of his 70-minute speech talking about Ukraine and painting Vladimir Putin as the villain of the night. In a touching display, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova was presented as a special guest, which elicited a thunderous standing ovation from members of Congress, who wore Ukrainian pins, flags and yellow and blue suits in solidarity.

During this portion of the speech, Biden spoke in generalities, focusing on unity, rather than in specifics. From a political standpoint, Biden’s team was smart to begin with such a bipartisan message before viewers got bored of the standing ovations and changed the channel.

The rest of the speech was an attempt of a mainstream Democrat attempting to give a bipartisan message.

From the bipartisan side, President Biden attempted to include items in his list that could appeal even to Republicans. I perked up in surprise when Biden said, “Our kids need to be in school.” My jaw hit the floor when he said, “The answer is not to defund the police, it is to fund the police.”

I was surprised by the blatancy at which he took a moderate stand with those talking points while representing a Democratic party split on these issues. He also introduced a four-point “unity agenda” to beat the opioid epidemic, take on mental health issues, support veterans and end cancer.

The president interchangeably discussed more liberal aspects of the Democratic platform, promoting a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave and Roe v. Wade. But progressives didn’t walk away from the speech as the victors, as congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the speech “left a little bit to be desired.”

Biden could only spend so much time doing victory laps around legislation, as the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the American Rescue Plan were his only two legislative accomplishments. To avoid blame for pressing issues such as crime, illegal immigration and inflation, he used general responses to prevent Americans from being reminded how bad these situations really are.

This address presented the illusion that all is well in the United States when the reality is that 72% of Americans in an Axios poll believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. For example, masks were not required in the House chamber for the first time since the pandemic, just in time for these Democrat politicians to be on TV and appear to be moving on from COVID-19.

While inflation is rampant in the U.S. economy, the president said getting prices under control was his “top priority.” He naively asked employers to lower their costs and not their wages to fight it. He didn’t address inflation head-on, leaning on generalizations and a brief mention on the topic.

Despite the various crises happening in and around the United States, President Biden was able to give a State of the Union address that was low in actual content but better in political appeal.

browder is an opinion writer.