The Speech Biden Should Have Given

While State of the Union speeches - spectacles - before a Joint Session of Congress should be abolished in favor of George Washington's precedent of letter, he should've said this

The evidence is in on Tuesday’s State of the Union address, and it’s not pretty. The Biden White House speechwriting team is the worst in modern history. No Peggy Noonans (legendary speechwriter for Presidents Reagan and Bush 41) among this cringeworthy bunch.

And that’s not just my view. Others, such as former White House associate counsel and 23-year radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, have said as much publicly. And by the way, the head of the President’s speechwriting team is. . . wait for it. . . the President himself. Given his painfully obvious infirmities, this should not be a surprise.

While I’ve never been a White House speechwriter, I have crafted my share of speeches for two Cabinet Secretaries, a Fortune 250 CEO, and a few United States Senators, among others. So as I’ve done here previously, let me take a crack at the SOTU speech I would have drafted for Joe Biden.

Before the first words of a speech are crafted, objectives must be established, and the audience - not just Congress, but the American people - needs to be thoroughly analyzed.

First, the audience analysis. And it’s not pretty. Three in four Americans think America is seriously off on the wrong track. And even most Democrats don’t want Joe Biden to run for reelection. The latest survey shows him losing to the one Republican the Democrats probably have the best chance of defeating, Donald Trump. Worse, Trump fares better among Republicans than Biden does among Democrats. From Forbes, citing an AP/NORC poll from late January:

Only 37% of Democrats want Biden to make another bid for the White House in 2024, according to the poll of 1,068 Americans conducted between January 26-30, down from around 50% in the agency’s polls in October and January.

Biden’s falling support is concentrated among younger Democrats, the poll found, with less than a quarter (23%) of Democrats under 45 supporting another election bid, down from nearly half supporting one (45%) before the midterms.

The drop in support was more modest among older Democrats ages 45 and over, the poll found, with nearly half (49%) in favor of Biden running again, down from 58% in October.

Overall, only 22% of Americans polled think Biden should run again in 2024—down from 29% from before the midterms—and only 9% of Republicans would want to see him run.

The figures come amid poor approval ratings for Biden—just 41% approve of his performance as president—and just a quarter (25%) of the public feel like the country is heading in the right direction, the poll found.

That’s pretty ugly. And he plans to run for reelection, already the oldest President in American history. “Just 27.3 million people watched the State of the Union address and it aired on every station,” reports Daniel Flynn of The American Spectator. “About 100 million people watch the Super Bowl and it airs on one station.”

Writing a speech for an unpopular president under these circumstances, especially after the embarrassing spectacle of a Chinese spy balloon meandering unmolested across the nation, is a challenge. The best way to tackle this challenge and alter Biden’s political trajectory is to offer a very different kind of speech.

Short and conversational.

Honest, bold, and surprising (short!).

Humble and self-effacing.

None of which were on display Tuesday.

A speech based on reality not only gets the American people’s attention but also connects and rebalances the relationship with stressed and unhappy families that, remind voters why they elected him.

So let’s get started.

THE PRESIDENT

Madam President (slowly turns toward VPOTUS) . . . of the Senate. Mr. Speaker. Justices of the Supreme Court . . . The Joint Chiefs of Staff . . . the Diplomatic Corps . . . Distinguished Members of Congress . . . and the American people.

The Constitution requires the President to give information, from time to time, on the State of our Union. I appreciate the invitation from the Speaker to do that tonight.

I’ve attended enough of these speeches over five decades to know how they develop and how long they run. Every Cabinet secretary competes for a paragraph or a mention of an important initiative or two, and they usually get it. And wow, do they run long.

Well, I have good news tonight. I will break no records for longevity. (HOLD FOR APPLAUSE). This might be the shortest speech on the State of the Union in American history (HOLD FOR WILD APPLAUSE).

I know that may shock you. I’m not known for brief speeches. But I’m living proof that an old dog can learn new tricks.

That’s because the American people don’t need me to take an hour or more to tell them what the State of our Union is. They know. The State of our Union is strong but is stressed. Unemployment is down, and wage growth is up, but so are the prices of everything. Forces often beyond our control are driving up the cost of eggs and disrupting the movement of goods to market. A lot of companies can’t find enough workers.

They know America remains respected abroad, but the forces of tyranny are on the march in Ukraine and elsewhere. Freedom and liberty have always been under attack. We must remain resolute in response.

Americans feel less safe in their neighborhoods, with senseless gun violence in the news every day. They worry about their children’s education. And their safety.

Let’s put this to rest once and for all. For the great jobs our educators do, parents and caregivers are ultimately responsible for the lives and education of their children. Period, full stop. (HOLD FOR APPLAUSE)

We are losing seventy thousand American lives every year to Fentanyl that finds its way across our border. That’s more people in a year than we lost in Vietnam over a decade. Much of it comes as our border patrol is diverted to care for people desperately trying to make their way to our country for a better life. The situation is not sustainable.

(BE CAREFUL NOT TO YELL)

Credit cards are being maxed out again. And our debt is reaching unacceptable levels. We now spend as much just for the interest on the public debt as we spend on national defense. That is unsustainable.

Many of the investments we’ve made in infrastructure and tackling climate change mitigation will reap enormous dividends. But that is of little comfort to the family that can’t afford to put increasingly expensive food on the table or to fill up their cars and trucks with gas. For too many, dreams of buying a first home have been put on hold.

But here’s my biggest worry and perhaps our biggest challenge.

We are losing confidence in our institutions. Schools. Governments. Our military.

Our churches and synagogues. Our elections.

Americans aren’t just growing more divided but more cynical about our ability to solve vexing problems.

On inauguration day, after several contentious years, I promised to unify our great country. I’m sad to report that not only have we failed, but it’s also getting worse. We talk past each other if we talk to each other at all. We call each other names. We’re more interested in settling scores and shutting down our opponents instead of engaging them.

And I’m not just talking about Congress. I’m talking about our country. We are more divided, more polarized, and more tribal since the Civil War. It’s not healthy. Worse, it won’t end well.

I am committing myself and my administration tonight to a new course. One that unites America and does not divide us. And we have already begun to take the first steps.

The other day, I met with Speaker McCarthy to discuss the need to raise our debt ceiling soon. We both agree it must be done. Our nation will not default on its financial obligations. But we also agree that our current financial path is unsustainable. We disagree on how to address that, but we’ve agreed to respect each other and keep working to find solutions we can agree on.

We can no longer kick the can down the road. We face serious challenges to American interests around the world. We saw evidence of that this past week. All of us are pledging not to cut Social Security and Medicare, but the truth is that both will run out of money in a decade if we don’t address them sooner than later.

So tonight, I’m dedicating the rest of my presidency to ratcheting down the rhetoric, reaching across the aisle, and finding and creating bipartisan solutions to our growing challenges. The name-calling ends tonight.

And instead of threatening vetoes on bills that won’t make it to my desk anyway, I’ll pledge only to sign legislation that reflects bipartisan support in Congress. On spending and tax reform. On crime, police reform, and gun violence, as you’ve already shown. The scourge of Mexican cartels and their illegal drug trade, immigration, human trafficking, and our border. On national defense and our longstanding support for freedom around the world.

Leadership isn’t about just setting an agenda. Leadership is also about setting a tone. A way of doing business that addresses what Americans yearn for and expects from their elected leaders. Not by silencing or censoring people or ideas we disagree with but by engaging them and encouraging the civil collision of ideas. That’s how knowledge and wisdom grow. It’s how creative solutions are found. It keeps our country moving forward as a beacon, a bulwark, of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.

Let’s get busy. We have a lot to do. Good night and God bless the United States of America.