Opinion: Biden - still old! - breathes fire, speaks truth and has fun with his hecklers at SOTU
By: Boulder Daily Camera
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Daily Camera guest opinion | openforum@dailycamera.com | Boulder Daily CameraMarch 9, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
By Melinda Henneberger
In the first season of what was then "NBC's Saturday Night" and later became "Saturday Night Live," comedian Chevy Chase did this running joke about how the media hammers some stories until they're pulverized, and even then won't stop.
That was 1975, the year the Spanish dictator Franco died, after weeks of regular news reports that he was still barely alive. "And in tonight's top story," SNL's original "Weekend Update" anchor would say, "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"
That's how I've felt for a while about the maddeningly one-note, Page One coverage of our president: Joseph R. Biden is still old!
The man has done a truly Rooseveltian job in his first term, amid multiple five-alarm blazes: He's walked our economy from hell back to health and pushed through a massive infrastructure program while also dealing with multiple wars, an increasingly isolationist Congress and a shocking percentage of the public tempted by fascism. In so many ways, we have been here before.
Yet conservative media has never stopped trying to make the man look like he can no longer dress himself. Then the rest of us, in trying to show how evenhanded we are, began doing muted versions of the same story, only posed as a question: Can Joe Biden still dress himself?
Why yes, it turns out. At Thursday night's State of the Union, he came out breathing fire, seemed to enjoy giving it right back to his hecklers and may still be hanging out in the Capitol for all I know, shaking hands with the midnight janitorial crew.
"I may not look like it, but I've been around awhile," he told the Congress and the country. "When you get to be my age, you've seen a few things," and know what matters — freedom and democracy most of all — and core values like honesty, decency and dignity.
"Other people my age see it differently," he said, smiling.
Since being elected to the U.S. Senate at only 29, he said, he's been called both too young and too old, "but whether young or old, I've always known what endures. … The very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We've never fully lived up to that idea, but we've never walked away from it, either, and I won't walk away from it now. The issue facing our nation isn't how old we are, it's how old our ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest."
With House Speaker Mike Johnson smirking over his shoulder — at one point, Vice President Kamala Harris had to arch an eyebrow in Johnson's direction even to get him to his feet to acknowledge the late civil rights icon John Lewis — Biden owned the room and made those yelling who knows what look small.
I've written before about how unworried I am about Biden's strength of purpose, and have compared him to his undemocratic rival I don't know how many times.
But on the night of his SOTU, I wanted to say why I think this president has accomplished what no one else could have in his first term, and why I'm not wishing anyone else were the '24 nominee, either, even if others do walk and talk faster and look better.
He is a survivor in so many ways — the last, it seems, of a certain kind of American politician, with deep experience in both foreign and domestic policy and deep faith in our better angels.
He righted a capsized federal government, and achieved what others have only talked about for decades just in making insulin affordable and capping credit card fees. A voice of reason in an unreasonable time, he has actually managed to govern in an age of intentional chaos; who else could have done that?
At the same time, his Joey from Scranton regular-guyness sets him apart, and his heart-on-his-sleeve humanity is what we need so much more of in public life. Whether he's talking about his own family or yours, don't you get the feeling he actually likes them? He's working his elderly rear end off for you, no matter who you are or what you think of him.
He began his address by citing FDR's 1941 State of the Union, intended to "wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary moment," just as this one is not.
"Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today. What makes this moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time."
"If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not. Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself."
He at least attempted to shame the smirking speaker and other cowards who in keeping that from happening have already cost some of our Ukrainian allies their lives: "But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world. It wasn't that long ago when a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, thundered, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.' Now my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, 'Do whatever the hell you want.'"
Biden's message to Putin is a little different, he said: "We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down."
Of the threat to democracy here, he spoke about Jan. 6, and how "we all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots … My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th. I will not do that. This is a moment to speak the truth and bury the lies. And here's the simple truth: You can't love your country only when you win."
He laid out our choices, and I am not at all torn about mine.
Melinda Henneberger is columnist for the Kansas City Star. She won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2022 and was a Pulitzer finalist for commentary in 2021, for editorial writing in 2020 and for commentary in 2019.
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I laughed at thatmeme . But really, when one is not used to performing on that particular stage I can understand how it could be daunting. Not going with for the substance of what she said, but it took a lot just to get up there, because she obviously had nothing in her past quite as large and prominent as that stage.
A Not Ready For Prime Time Player Should Start Off Broadway.
3rd Place at a County 4-H Speech and Demonstration Contest!
This is what you get when your only criteria is "the opposite of Biden". You get a young female with an average number of MAGA brain cells.
How unsurprising that democrats take over a seed about Biden to attack a woman.
I get the need to deflect from Biden but sheesh,,,
They should have practiced more.
I wonder how her accomplishments stack up against those attacking her intelligence, BS, JD, CEO for Alabama business development council, Alabama is growing high tech businesses faster than most.
How Fun! Then we can compare NT commenters with Kamala Harris.
Cool, how many NT posters did Willy Brown to get ahead?
"Breathes Fire"
That was just a few more synapses burning out in his brain
He only spoke to a single segment of his own party,,, and they loved it.
yep, he was trying to show the far left that he would prioritize their demands so they don’t push him out. It was the speech of a partisan party leader rallying his troops, not the president of a country.
Biden - Still too old, blows smoke instead of fire, cannot tell truth from fiction, has trouble realizing that he is being heckled.
I get it. We all get it. You hate Joe Biden.
Yet, Joe is neither dazed nor confused!
He put that lie to rest Thursday night...
When he couldn’t remember the name of the college student murdered by an illegal or when the stupid bastard said he told a Jewish leader that they were going to have a come to Jesus meeting?
"At least he didn't drool."
Joe Biden is Just a Bitter, Hate-Filled Old Man (townhall.com)
Chuck Schumer 2009 Remarks on Immigration Exposes How Insane Dems Have Become on the Issue (townhall.com)
Trump should be on the couch with the other autocrats.
If you liked that you are not going to love this...
So why does Putin prefer Biden, and also supported Hillary in 2016??
Now ask yourself why would Putin prefer Biden over Trump?
Then show some evidence that what the BBC posted and what Putin said is not the truth. [deleted]
He does not really. Did your school ban this book? It illustrates Vlad Putin's reverse psychology. He is a master of psyops...
Do you believe everything Putin says?
The BBC only reported what Putin said but they did not believe it. Putin was scared shitless of Hillary and did everything he couldn't to help Trump. Nobody believes he wants Biden to win, but in his mind says he does will result in people voting for Trump like he wants...
Got it. So you two are mind readers and know what's on his mind. You guys should take your schtick on the road, might make a lot of money. Or at least go to Washington seeing how those people are so completely clueless when it comes to knowing what someone else is actually thinking.
Imagine the audacity, taking someone at their word. I guess you don't believe ANYBODY based on what they say...
I agree but Biden does tell the truth by accident from time to time.
As is denying the undeniable.
The same way a defense attorney can defend a genuinely guilty client.
Mounting a defense does not mean that the defense itself is sound. "Defending the indefensible" is a very old, very common idiom which describes an act of futility.
You asked a question. It should not matter who provides you the information. Unless your question was not genuine.
No, that is not how forums work.
Was that on Nancy Pelosi's office wall during the Jan 6th tours?
The worst polling state of the union in history. As I said at the time, it was an appeal to the far left to keep him, that’s it.
And the bonus for trump besides Biden whiffing was he gave republicans the gift of democrats driving home how much they support open borders by attacking Biden for “insulting” a murderer of a young woman by correctly calling him an illegal.