By Scott Jennings | USA TODAY
President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address offered a chance for a flagging presidency to reset and pivot, perhaps giving his party a new message to sell in the upcoming midterms.
But for Democrats, the chance
was missed. The president offered nothing new. In fact, if you had seen no news
about this presidency and just watched the speech cold Tuesday night, you might
assume that, politically, everything is fine for Biden.
But the reality is much
different. Biden’s approval ratings in many national polls are in
the upper 30s, low 40s, a terrible omen for Democratic candidates up and down
the ballot. Many generic ballots show Republicans with huge leads,
which portends the possibility of a wave that ushers Republicans into
office who never even dreamed they had a chance when they filed to run.
Biden won't target Putin where
it hurts
And Biden did nothing about it.
His message on Russia was perfectly fine, calling for American resolve and solidarity behind the people of Ukraine.
But there was nothing new, such as the idea that many Republicans are floating
– banning all oil and gas imports from Russia.
At the same time we are sending
various kinds of aid to the brave Ukrainians (and planning for more), the
United States is still importing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil each
day from Russia. It begs the question: How serious is Biden when it comes
to fully isolating Putin?
The sanctions and measures
taken by the Western world are severe, to be sure. And there’s evidence that the
powerful Russian oligarchs are starting to feel the pain (or soon will).
What you won't hear
at State of the Union:Biden botched his first year as president
Even so, even Canada has
banned Russian crude imports, revenues from which support the Putin regime
and the lifestyle of the oligarchs Biden singled out in his speech. Why can’t we do this?
And why can’t Biden relent
on his war on American domestic fossil fuel production to
help supply our European allies at a time that they, too, need to cut off
Russian oil imports as much as possible?
Biden appears to care more
about his green energy agenda – championed by the progressives in his party –
than he does about sticking the knife as far in Putin’s back as possible.
Perhaps we could stop the madman more quickly if we were as committed to that
as Biden is to a liberal agenda that has no chance of passing this Congress or
the next.
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Happy talk won't cut it
The rest of the speech was
mostly a laundry list of ideas that appear in legislation already dead. The
inflation section was flat, and that issue alone has put an anvil on his
ability to improve his political position.
I was surprised that he didn’t
bring any new ideas to the table on the issues killing his party, and that
he continues to try to use "17 Nobel laureates" to convince Americans paying
over $100 to fill their tanks that things are just fine.
Happy talk simply won’t cut it when it doesn’t match voters’ lived experiences.
This presidency needs a hard
reset or it faces being remembered as one of the worst of the modern era. Think
Bill Clinton’s 1996 State of the Union address, in which he declared “the era of big government is over.” While Clinton had
already taken his midterm
lumps before his pivot, surely Biden can see what’s coming if he
doesn’t do something drastic to change direction.
There were a few bright spots
in the speech worthy of praise. His call to fund the police was politically smart, as
the radicals in his party who want to defund the police are dragging down all Democrats with their irresponsible
rhetoric. The nod to America’s drug crisis and to those in recovery is an issue
that affects millions of families, in every state.
And the story of the little boy
with diabetes was a memorable touch on a key issue. Those kinds of personal
stories often stand the best chance of lingering in the minds of viewers.
But this speech is likely to be
forgotten quickly as we turn our attention back to the atrocities being
committed by the Russians and the inflation crisis that is punishing the
American people.
Republicans won’t find much to
like here, and even some congressional Democrats were pre-planning to go their
separate ways, with representatives from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus set to give their own
responses to a Democratic president’s speech.
As for the GOP, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in her response stuck to
the issues that you will see time and again in Republican ad campaigns this
fall – schools, crime, inflation, and how Republican leadership can change
the country’s dismal direction. Her party’s candidates would be wise to follow
her example and not chase bizarre agendas or other wild goose chases emanating
from Florida.
AFTER LAST NIGHT
BY SCOTT JOHNSON | POWERLINE
• The spectacle of Biden speaking in front of Vice
President Harris and Speaker Pelosi was chilling. We are not a serious
country.
• How silly and small did they look by contrast with
President Zelensky and every Ukrainian official we have heard from over the
past week?
• As Biden rushed through his text and slurred the words,
I wondered if he was medicated.
• The text of the address provided by the White House does
not reflect the speech as delivered. At one point, I heard Biden express
support for the Iranians when he meant Ukrainians (“Putin may circle Kyiv with
tanks, but he’ll never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people”). He
supports the Iranians (the mullahs, anyway). Perhaps it was a Freudian slip.
• The White House text of the address omits Biden’s
concluding words: “Go get him!” Or was it “Go get ’em!”? (It was, according
to the New York Times transcript.)
I thought the meds might be wearing off toward the end. Apparently not.
• Does he support the Ukrainians? Despite his protestations
and bravado, the message I heard is: You’re on your own. That’s just the way
it is. We are not even prepared to cut off our imports of Russian oil.
• The Biden administration will do nothing to call off
its war on American energy production. That war will persist. As for the
administration’s utter lack of seriousness, which was evident throughout the
address, “that is all/Ye know on earth/and all ye need to know.”
• As for the administration’s utter lack of
seriousness, which was evident throughout the address, consider Biden’s blithe
observation: “[W]e need to secure the Border and fix the immigration
system.” We need to secure the border, but it is Biden himself who undid it
on the first day of his administration and he has no intention of doing it.
Like the administration’s war on American energy production, the undoing will
persist.
• Commenting on Biden’s prepared remarks over the past
year, I have observed that he needs to call the speech doctor. As events
required a focus on foreign policy, the White House speechwriters did not
bother to put together a coherent speech. Weakness abroad comports with
weakness at home.
• When he turned to domestic policy, the implicit message
was: Stay the course! More of the same!
• Biden foresaw a better America next year. Toward his
conclusion he assured us: “[W]e will be stronger a year from now than we are
today.” Is there anyone who didn’t think that any improvement would come as a
result of the election this November, with a Republican majority in at least
one house of Congress to impede the administration?
• The trouble with inflation, according to Biden, is
rising costs (“I think I have a better idea to fight inflation. Lower your
cost, not your wages”). That’s a little like saying the trouble with
insanity is serious mental illness, or the trouble with pain is that it hurts.
• Biden has big plans to deal with rising costs. Among
them is a war on Big Meat. I kid you not: “Small businesses and family farmers
and ranchers I need not tell some of my Republican friends from those states,
guess what, you got four basic meat packing facilities. That’s it. You play
with them or you don’t get to play at all. And you pay a hell of a lot more. A
hell of a lot more because there’s only four.”
• For some reason or other, Big Meat only became a big
problem following January 20, 2021.
• Is it wrong not to take the war on Big Meat seriously?
Is it wrong to laugh at Big Meat? Is it wrong to laugh at Biden calling out Big
Meat? Bill Murray, call your office.
• Biden announced “a crackdown on those companies
overcharging American businesses and consumers.” For some reason or other,
overcharging American consumers only became a big problem following January 20,
2021.
• Perhaps he can call on Hillary to bring back the Overcharge button
she delivered to the Russians in the heyday of the Obama administration.
• Biden hasn’t given up on his Bummer Beyond Belief legislation.
It appeared in a new guise as “building a better America” and other such
variants more lethal than Omicron. Indeed, it appeared as part of his plan to
fight inflation: “Seventeen Nobel laureates in economics said my plan will ease
long-term inflationary pressures.” We need more government welfare spending to
“ease long-term inflationary pressures.”
• The stupidity in the speech was pervasive. It is
lethal. There is no known cure for it.
• Biden advocated support for mental health. I can go
with him this far. I support mental health help for anyone who felt
obligated to listen to Biden’s address last night.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/after-last-night-35.php
_______________
State of Disunion
By Judd Garrett
The first week in office, Biden shut down the Keystone XL
pipeline, stopped drilling in Anwar, and cancelled oil and gas leases on
Federal lands. He was on a crusade to destroy America’s oil and gas industry
under the guise of promoting “green energy”. Two months after sanctioning our
oil and gas industry, he removed the sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream
pipeline. Biden’s energy policy has caused America to lose our energy
independence and become reliant on energy produced by our enemies once again.
American citizens are now helping to finance our enemy to conduct a war against
an ally that is also a potential existential threat to both America and Europe.
We are supposed to rally around Biden’s tough talk against Russia’s actions
against Ukraine when his fingerprints are all over those actions. And his
refusal to change his policies, leads one to believe that he wants a
destabilized America and Europe. If you want to destroy our country, implement
policies that make our country energy dependent on a murderous dictator, and
puts us on the precipice of another World War.
Joe Biden’s irresponsible monetary policy of printing
trillions of new dollars out of thin air to finance his far-left agenda without
approval of Congress, and without raising taxes has shot inflation through the
roof, driving up the cost of goods by 7.5% which ends up being a 7.5% tax
increase of every American. Monetary policy driven inflation is a regressive
tax that hurts the poor the most and the rich the least, and destroys the value
and stability of our currency. If you want to destroy our country, devalue the
dollar to the point that it is on the verge of no longer being trusted as the
world’s exchange currency.
The Biden administration has continually extended and
expanded the Covid relief programs for unemployed workers where the
beneficiaries are no longer required to prove they are actively looking for
work. The relief program was originally implemented to help people who lost
their jobs during the government mandated Covid lockdowns; it was never meant
to be a permanent program that pays people not to work. The extension of this
program has created an unprecedented dynamic; a combination of high
unemployment coupled with a worker shortage crisis. If you want to destroy our
country, cripple its economy by subsidizing unemployment to the point that
millions of people turn down good paying jobs to stay on the public dole.
The Biden administration has opened our borders to 2
million undocumented, unvetted, untested, unvaccinated illegal aliens. They
have been bussing and flying many of these illegal aliens into the interior of
the country to red and battleground states for the express purpose of flipping
those states to blue. If you are purposely allowing your country’s borders to
be overrun by 2 million foreign nationals, and at the same time, speaking
forcefully about defending one of your ally’s borders to ensure their national
sovereignty, then you may be intentionally compromising your own country’s
sovereignty. If you want to destroy our country, then erase our country’s
borders, and make American citizenship meaningless.
Under Joe Biden’s watch, more young Americans have died
of drug overdoses than at any other time in our history, yet he refuses to
change his open border policy, which is allowing the most lethal drug of all,
fentanyl, to flood across the southern border in record amounts. Joe Biden’s
unwillingness to address this crisis gives the appearance that he wants
hundreds of thousands of young Americans to die unnecessarily. If you want to
destroy our country, poison our communities with highly addictive and extremely
deadly drugs which take the lives of our youth, destroy our families, and
promote violent crime in our communities.
Big tech and social media platforms, at the behest of the
White House, have spent the last year censoring political speech they don’t
like under the specious grounds of preventing the spread of “misinformation”,
all of which deprives American citizens of their primary Constitutional right
of freedom of speech. If you want to destroy our country, threaten our
Constitution and our very democracy by encouraging censorship of political
speech which denies law-abiding citizens the right to say and hear whatever
they want.
The Biden administration has promoted the teaching of
Critical Race Theory in our public schools, throughout the Federal Government
and in the Armed Services. Our children, federal workers, and soldiers are
being taught to judge their fellow citizens based primarily on their race and
gender, teaching that one race is irrevocably evil, while other races are
perpetually victims. They are indoctrinating American citizens to believe that
certain races are inherently superior to others. If you want to destroy our
country, then divide its citizens based on race and gender differences.
Joe Biden’s intelligence agencies have named the number
one threat to America as “domestic terrorists”, defined as anyone who disagrees
with the far left. This is why they are intent on categorizing everyone present
at the Capital on January 6th where a political protest devolved into a riot as
“violent insurrectionists” so the FBI can target and harass those people for
their political beliefs. If you want to destroy our country, weaponize our
intelligence agencies against your political opponents.
In August, Joe Biden oversaw the horrific and
embarrassing withdrawal of our military from Afghanistan where thousands of
Americans were left behind, dozens were killed, and $80 billion dollars of
state-of-the-art weaponry was left behind for a violent terrorist organization,
making them one of the most well-armed armies in the world. Our withdrawal was
executed in such an unprofessional and shoddy way, that it must have been done
on purpose to humiliate our military. If you want to destroy our country, embarrass
our military on a world stage for our enemies like Vladimir Putin and President
Xi to see.
Every step of the way, Joe Biden has pursued and
implemented policies with the intent to destabilize, and eventually destroy our
country, so it can be rebuilt from the ground up through the eyes of the
far-left socialist wing of the Democratic Party. This is why Donald Trump was
seen as so much more of a threat than a typical Republican like John McCain or
Mitt Romney who were on-board with managing America’s slow decline. If America
is great, if America is the premier country in the world by far, then there is
no reason to tear America down to its studs and rebuild it through the vision
of a far-left socialist lens. And there lies the impossibility of Joe Biden’s
speech last night, trying to convince Americans that their country is strong
and unified when all along he has been actively trying to tear it down into
nothing.
