If Fighting Joe can keep this pace for the next eight months, American democracy will endure and the MAGA movement will quietly rest on the dustbin of history.
Okay, I’ll admit it: Joe Biden surprised me last night.
I didn’t expect it. These major-league speeches are judged on both style and substance, and the presumption, after months of incessant question-raising about his age, was that the President would present like the title character in Weekend at Bernie’s.
But a prizefighter emerged from the door in the House chamber and gave a more electrifying State of the Union than I’ve seen in years. And he delivered a message sure to play well among the working-class voters I long represented in Ohio.
The speech transparently served to kick off the president’s re-election campaign. And it should put to rest any questions over whether Biden is too old to run again.
It’s not just that he appeared engaged. It’s that his energy matched the substance of his remarks. He was, to use an old word, a pugilist—he appeared like a hard-nosed boxer. Many of us presumed that he would wage the coming campaign on defense, framing himself as the safe alternative to the resurrection of former President Donald Trump’s chaos. But that appears not to be the White House’s strategy at all. Biden’s intent is to jab at the GOP’s glass jaw until it eventually shatters. And he’s already landed some nasty blows.
His posture was clear from the outset.
