Biden's Speech Was Not the Win the Political Class Thought It Was
DELAWARE COUNTY, Pennsylvania -- It is a bit jarring to observe the divide between what the legacy press, Democrats and cable news hosts observed when they watched President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, and how persuadable voters of both Republican and Democratic leanings reacted.
On the day after the speech, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Biden gave "his best speech of his presidency by far. ... Strongest speech, and, most importantly, for people that were thinking, 'Oh, he's too old. He's too that, man' ... he gave a lot more than he got."
CNN's Stephen Collinson wrote that Biden "projected vigor and forcefulness" and "was a trenchant master of the chamber of the House of Representatives, effectively wielding the theatrics of the presidency and commanding an hour of unfiltered primetime television."
However, in sitting with several voters whose presidential choices have been all over the place for the past 20 years, with some of them jumping from George W. Bush to Barack Obama to Donald Trump to Joe Biden, the president's comportment did not come off as strength.
Instead, many of them felt they were being yelled at.
Intellectually, they all understood why Biden needed to project vigor. They also all agreed that vigor and yelling are not the same thing.
These suburban Philadelphia voters say Trump's comportment is a bridge too far for them, but they also don't care much for Biden either. Where their votes go, they have no idea, but if you are a Democratic strategist sitting at home and thought Biden's performance shored up this voting bloc, you might want to go back to the drawing board.
NPR handled the coverage wisely. Reporter Tamara Keith spent some time with Karen Seagraves, 52, the kind of independent voter President Joe Biden's campaign needs to attract in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona and her home state of North Carolina.
Keith wrote an hour into Biden's speech that Seagraves said she wasn't feeling it.
"I think this entire thing has been lackluster," Seagraves told her, adding, "I can't think of a better word. Just -- vanilla," she said.
...continued
Copyright 2024 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
