Live Blog Tonight! State of the State the Union

All times Eastern.

11:00

To my pessimistic introduction (see bottom) a veteran communicator I trust writes, “I don’t know. Sounded pretty dynamic to me. And he now ‘owns’ the Republicans on Social Security!” Fair enough. I guess the trouble is that this doesn’t seem like a rhetorical exercise to me, but something else. It’s like I’ve covered boxing and now I’m watching MMA. And struggle even to describe what I’m seeing and what it means, at least in any way that takes advantage of insights I’ve earned over a life of study. My wife wanted me to skip this this year … I think I will skip it next.

Goodnight.

10:52

“I’m the first woman to lead my state. And he’s the first man to surrender his presidency a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is. … The choice is between normal and crazy.” No, I’m sorry, I’m not going to “analyze” this. You either don’t need me to, or you don’t want me to.

10:47

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is taking too long to start her speech; we’re pushing a half hour here. It’s getting late.

10:43

Now CNN’s Chris Wallace is implying that maybe Biden was trying to bait the some of those Republicans to heckle him, to make him look like a badass. See what I mean, about this not being a speech, but being something else entirely?

10:34

“This was the best speech I have ever heard [Biden] deliver,” says CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who generally says so little that he could be replaced by ChatGPT, with stubble.

10:28

MSNBC folks—Rachel, etc.—sound gleeful as usual. They make their living from fights. “It was the single most confrontational State of the Union Address we’ve ever seen!” says Lawrence O’Donnell.

10:27

“He was feisty, he was combative … even responsive to the crowd,” sez Jake Tapper of CNN. “There’s a lot to chew over. … But … the president was heckled, quite often and quite rudely.” FOX commentator notes not enough talk about the border or China; another points out that Biden said, “Folks,” 19 times. Brit Hume criticizes “stumbling, slurring and words left out and so on.” Expresses doubt that this speech was “confidence inspiring.”

10:18

Hate to be talking here about spectacle and style over content and policy, but symbolism is really what the SOTU has always been all about. It’s just that what this one is symbolizing isn’t serving a useful purpose, unless I’m missing it. Am I missing it?

10:10

Wow, this Republican behavior actually threatens the continuation of SOTU as we know it. (Maybe not the end of the world.) But this is starting to feel like question time in the British Parliament. If the early expectations had to do with Biden standing and delivering in a viral, vital way … and McCarthy keeping his folks in line—Biden’s doing it, and McCarthy ain’t. Biden’s affect in the face of this heckling is as if he’s wearing his aviators.

10:05

I’ve never seen someone smirk and shush at the same time.

10:03

“He saved lives. It’s time we do the same.”

10:00

“In one sense we ask too much of [police] …. but what happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often.” He’s getting an impressively bipartisan response to this. Perhaps I spoke to soon about the rhetorical utility of “the Skutnik,” when you choose your Skutnik right.

9:55

Veteran speechwriter writes on Facebook: “I don’t care how vehemently they disagree with the president and his administration … really ugly display and a complete lack of decorum by the embarrassing wing of the Republican party during tonight’s State of the Union. When the speaker of the house has to signal to his members to stop shouting ‘Liar’ at the president during his speech, it’s just shameful. I’ve been a Republican since I registered to vote, but there’s an awful, awfully vocal segment of our party that is completely lost in the woods.”

9:53

Oh wow, he just turned like 10 pages.

9:51

Speechwriter John Patterson points out that “America is tired of being played for suckers” is a good line; yeah, it sounds like a Trump line. We like it when our guy says it, we hate it when their guy does. It’s like that, and that’s the way it is.

9:49

And the grocery list begins; discouragingly, the script in front of him looks only about half over.

9:47

At any rate, Biden does not seem rattled. I’ve heard from White House insiders that he simply does not get rattled or panic about shit. I think of older people who boast on coffee cups and tee shirts about “not giving a shit anymore.” The upside of 80?

9:42

Oh boy, McCarthy just said, “Not true.” What did he say “not true” to? So much for the hope for preventing Republican outbursts. MTG: “Liar!”

9:40

Feeling his oats. Commanding the room. And then, “We’re going to need oil for at least another decade.” Tell me that was an ad-lib. And tell me it wasn’t.

9:35

Warming up with that football coach joke.

9:30

“Blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.” There’s some speech craft. But pretty cheap. I’ve said before that Biden could truly say something compelling on this, if he said more and demonstrated it better. During the 2020 campaign, I suggested:

“Rather than tiptoeing across the Midwest in his COVID mask and getting an earful from truculent Trump voters, maybe Biden could be seen in colorful conversation with real working-class heroes he’s known for years. How about a televised town hall, convened of smart, thoughtful, charismatic, funny Scranton plumbers and Amtrak workers, union workers he’s known, cops who have worked with him, Army buddies of his son Beau and waitresses who have served him breakfast at his favorite Wilmington greasy spoon. Gather these people for a conversation—about the conversations they’re having with other working-class people who are supporting Trump.”

9:29

Speechwriting friends, am I missing some special speech craft here? Have I had too much bourbon to appreciate it? Or too little?

9:22

The man puts me to sleep. And that’s exactly what I want a president to do, even while sharing words of outrage and dreams …

9:15

A McCarthy stands up tardily for the bipartisan aid to victims of burn pits. Somebody check this guy’s reflexes.

9:07

Joe Biden fulfills an overlooked but important requirement of being a political leader. The dude looks like he likes the job. So many pols—locally in Chicago I think of Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot and nationally George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama—sometimes looked like they seemed pained by it all. People who beg us for the big job owe it to us to truly seem grateful to have it. Biden’s solidly in that good camp, you can’t deny it.

9:02

Jennifer Granholm seems to be wearing a noose? At the SOTU, it’s always something.

8:54

Moments before the President of the United States is to walk in and share the State of the Union, the asshole CNN panel is arguing about Biden’s age and poll numbers and the 2024 election. Republican pundit Scott what’s his name describes Biden and Trump as “two magnets stuck together in the back of a utility drawer. … You know you should throw them away, but …” Do I have to switch to PBS?

8:47

I wonder if George Santos complains to friends that he sometimes suffers from “impostor syndrome.” As we recently read on Writing Boots …

8:41

On CNN, a reference to Lenny Skutnik, the first gallery member invited for presidential reference, by President Reagan. Skutnik had very recently saved a woman from a plane crash in the icy Potomac River, and Reagan called him out as an American hero. Speechwriters now call that ritual “a Skutnik.” Phony then, but at least original; phony now, but compulsory.

8:39

Watching these Congresspeople hang with each other is always fascinating. I once spent about three hours on the floor of the Illinois State Senate … and was struck-near-to-the-point-of-offense with how personally chummy all those political enemies were.

8:30

As a Democrat, I really hate that Joe Biden speaks so badly. I don’t think it means he’s senile (at all). I think his speech impediment or stutter or whatever is getting worse with age. (I don’t remember even knowing about this issue when he wiped the floor with Paul Ryan in the vice presidential debate 11 years ago.) But in the end, speaking well is a big part of this goddamn job and speaking badly gives his enemies so much ammunition for undercutting his credibility. Thus, half my own energy in listening to him is spent quietly rooting for him not to slur his words. I fervently wish this wasn’t the case. What else can I say?

(I realize the above is ageist and ableist. As are all of Biden’s enemies, and many of his allies.)

8:25

Wife headed upstairs to avoid my typing. “Are you going to watch this?” I ask.

“Nope,” she says.

8:20

God help me, I do love waiting for the president to come out of the White House door and get into the limo. Maybe because it’s the only fact of the evening that won’t be disputed? And maybe because it’s fun to imagine leaving your house for a short drive to give a speech to 38 million people (the number that watched last year’s SOTU). I’m currently sweating a speech I’m giving next month to about 100.

8:15

Fox is fixated on the border, and Brit Hume predicts President Biden will say “very little” on that subject. And that’s the only thing they’re saying about the SOTU so far, at Fox.

8:09 p.m.

“Biden needs to come off as vigorous, and ready for six more years on the job,” says Chris Wallace. House Speaker McCarthy, meanwhile, wants to avoid any embarrassing outbursts from his people. So: No passing out at the lectern for Biden, and no obscenities from Republicans. Aim high, America.

12:12 p.m.

This morning former White House speechwriter Eric Schnure wished me a “Happy ‘Everyone Agrees It’ll Be a Terrible Speech But We Can’t Help Talking About It Constantly’ Day.”

Even former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki said so, in a column at MSNBC.com today: “Ask any speechwriter who has ever spent hundreds of hours crafting a State of the Union address, and they will tell you it is one of the worst speeches a president gives during the year.”

But, she added wearily, “despite the State of the Union’s flaws, it remains the best chance any president has to tell the American people en masse what he has been working on and what he wants to do moving forward.”

And then, of course, Psaki gave in to the aspirational: “It is also an opportunity to reset the conversation, the narrative and the focus of the public.”

President Biden seems particularly unlikely to deliver a game-changer. His former White House speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum told The New York Times, “This is a guy who has been remarkably consistent over a very long career both in the values he brings to the job and the way he articulates those values. When you’re writing for Joe Biden, you’re a session musician for a band that has already released 20 albums.”

This next record isn’t likely to be avant-garde, constructed under the crush of D.C. convention by Chief White House Speechwriter Vinay Reddy and several other close advisors, as well as longtime Democratic comms strategist Anita Dunn “and the historian Jon Meacham, who is called upon to add historical heft, usually toward the end of the proceedings.”

Oh, brother.

The Times indicates that President Biden’s main contributions to the speech are: Striking out acronyms and anything else that sounds to him like Washington-speak. And marking up a paper draft with pauses and other notations in order to help him navigate his stutter. Though the notes don’t make it into the teleprompter obviously, he relies on his memory, and the marked up text in front of him, to help him deliver the words clearly.

Well, but those are things that every president should do—every speaker, in fact. I don’t entirely trust the Times’ report, because it contains a few clunkers, like this description of President Obama’s speechwriting routine, claiming Obama “worked with writers … and then rewrote the entire speech in his own hand.” Ummm, no.

In any case, this will likely be a terrible speech. Just like your grocery list will be a terrible poem. (And still a better poem than the SOTU will be a speech.)

Of course I’m open to being surprised by a notable speech tonight: But a surprise, it will certainly be.

We’ll begin here about 8:00 ET.