Disagreement on the SOTU

Two Washington Post columnists. Two opposing views of President Biden’s State of the Union message. Ruth Marcus sees the SOTU message as heralding that President Biden is shifting to the center:

To the extent this speech is remembered, and few such addresses are, I suspect it will be for Biden’s move from placating his party’s liberal base to recognizing the sober reality that his legislative options are already limited. His presidency is likely to be even more constrained after the midterm elections, which means his political future is tied more closely to finding areas of common ground with Republicans — or at least appearing to seek them — than engaging in partisan warfare.

As evidence she cites the amount of time in the speech the president devoted to competitiveness initiatives, infrastructure, and his rejection of the “defund the police” mantra of the progressive wing of his caucus.

Henry Olsen on the other hand interpreted the speech as “doubling down”:

State of the Union addresses tend to be unmemorable, providing little boost to a president’s political standing. There was some hope, maybe an expectation, that President Biden’s address on Tuesday night might be different, what with the war in Ukraine and his abysmal job approval numbers. That, sadly for Biden and perhaps Ukraine, was not the case.

Let’s start with the politics. Biden’s domestic agenda was nothing more than a rehash of things he has already called for. Now, the Build Back Better bill will be broken into component parts, probably because that’s what polls show does better with voters. But in the end, it adds up to the same legislative package that Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) has already said he won’t support.

Where is Biden on tackling inflation? It’s Americans’ No. 1 concern. He announced a competition initiative, but that simply won’t bring inflation down over the next several months before the midterms, even as he is now publicly committed to the fight. Thus, Biden will be seen to be fighting inflation — and losing. Voters never reward ineptitude.

I think that’s a bit harsh. The question is whether the voters will “reward” Democrats for presumably good intentions. We’ll see.

My own interpretation of the SOTU was that President Biden was trying to face his poll numbers head on, taking each of areas in which he’s losing support and highlighting how his plans will address them. Somewhat less charitably, he was rhetorically triangulating while pragmatically doubling down.