A string of victories on Super Tuesday last week left former President Donald Trump the presumptive GOP nominee, making semiofficial what had been apparent for months. While the rapidity of his pre-coronation is concerning for the country, it did free up President Joe Biden to use his State of the Union address Thursday to take some early whacks at Trump, though without naming him directly. “As president, my predecessor failed the most basic presidential duty that he owes to the American people: the duty to care,” Biden said. “I think that’s unforgivable.”
It was an energized — and energizing — speech that Biden will be using as a springboard to launch into the general election at full throttle. Already, new plans announced by his campaign are a marked contrast from the “sleepy” vibe that marked the early days of his re-election bid. Taken together, these moves underscore the campaign’s desire to shift the narrative ahead of November from concerns about Biden’s age to one that emphasizes the stakes for November.
It was an energized — and energizing — speech that Biden will be using as a springboard to launch into the general election at full throttle.
According to a poll CNN conducted immediately after the State of the Union, 62% of respondents agreed that the policies Biden proposed would move the country forward, up from 45% who said as much before the speech. (It’s worth noting that the State of the Union tends to attract more viewers who support the president than those who prefer to tune him out; it was also slightly lower than when the same question was asked before and after Biden’s previous State of the Union speeches.) The campaign still has no intention of wasting any momentum. The weeks after the speech are generally used to promote the president’s themes and messages, but his schedule over the next few weeks is truly packed, as Politico reported:
In what it has dubbed a ‘Month of Action,’ the Biden campaign announced…
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