Biden’s SOTU: eye of the beholder
Late last night I looked at comments to a YouTube video that featured excerpts from Biden’s SOTU speech, and the first ten or so were on the order of “Great speech!” “Unifying speech that will bring us together!” “Statesmanlike speech!”
Who are these people? Bots, paid operatives, or just party regulars? Do Democrats really see that and hear that when they watch and listen to Biden?
The right saw it as the angriest and nastiest speech ever, and incredibly divisive. For example from Ted Cruz:
Frankly tonight Joe Biden reminded me like an angry old man standing on his porch, screaming to the kids, “Get off my lawn!” That’s who he was.
I’ve never seen…. I’ve been to 12 State of the Union addresses. I’ve never seen anything remotely like this. This was entirely focused on the November election. …
… [H]alf the Republicans almost fell asleep because after welcoming the president where we stand and show respect for the office, we basically just sat there for over an hour, as he told lie after lie after lie.
And he just went hard left. I’ve never seen anything like this.
That pretty much fits my impression of Biden whenever I’ve watched him give speeches, which granted isn’t very often because it’s hard to stomach.
Apparently a lot of people also were taken with Speaker Johnson’s expressive eyerolls:
Mike Johnson shook his head and rolled his eyes throughout Joe Biden's State of the Union speech. pic.twitter.com/djBajwIJEA
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 8, 2024
And many people have pointed out that the MSM propaganda machine quickly got the word out in unified fashion, crowing that Biden’s speech was the f-words “fiery” and “feisty.” Examples abound; see this, this, and this.
Just past the 16 minute mark, Victor Davis Hanson joins Tucker Carlson to give his take: Uncensored: Tucker’s Response to Biden’s State of the Union 2024
As with Ted Cruz, VDH has never seen anything like it.
I have yet to see anyone assert the speech to have been beautiful.
Perhaps such a one exists, yet given that many assert the contrary — that the speech was quite ugly, and that in many ways (delivery, rhetorically, etc.) — I think it’s doubtful. So beauty-seekers may search in vain.
Reading the transcript this morning I was somewhat surprised by the speechwriters’ choice to make a quasi-theme of the incoherent trope “History is watching”, which showed up in various forms at least five times.
It’s as though “Let’s make a theme of gibberish!” strikes them as a novel and worthy idea.
Someone should make a video clip of filthy homeless encampments in public parks, groomers indoctrinating children at drag queen events, news clips about violence and mayhem involving illegals and antifa/blm/hamas leftists all overlaid with the President yelling about the strength of our nation, and ending with chants of Lets Go Brandon at a football game. Perhaps with an epilogue of that clip from Psaki & Co tittering about Virginians worried about the border. The left has no high ground on which to stand; they yell from the pit that they are superior.
(This is based solely on what I’m gathering from others’ reactions to the Biden speech, emanating from both left-leaners and right-leaners.)
After discounting reactions to the speech that are consciously partisan spin in the service of what the partisans believe is the Greater Good — i.e. they really don’t believe a word of what they’re spinning but hey, one obediently performs his/her/its/zeir duty —
the extent to which those people rave about how statesmanlike and unifying the speech was, is approximately the extent to which people like us (neo’s tenants) are regarded as less than human by *them*.
To think (again, based on what I’m gathering from others’ reactions to the Biden speech) that left-leaners *really* perceived that extended angry tirade as being statesmanlike and unifying says a lot about how those people perceive us right-leaners.
We are invisible. We don’t exist (not as sentient humans, anyway).
I find it frightening.
Biden & Co. hate us. They really hate us. And they really love themselves.
Wanted to listen to it but a few minutes was all I could take. Read a few reviews that was enough.
Who are these people? Bots, paid operatives, or just party regulars? Do Democrats really see that and hear that when they watch and listen to Biden?
I made a favorable comment about Bernie Sanders on Reddit. Immediately got over 2,000 upvotes, on a post with less that 150 other comments.
After making legitimate, mild, observation a few days later, permanently banned.
Biden caved to the left wing of the democrats (every one in that party) by forcing Israel to accept ‘humanitarian’ aid to Hamas.
Will any moderate democrats (are there any?) figure this out and either stay home or vote for President Trump?
They don’t call him “Old Yeller” for nothing. The ire arising from his illegitimacy is aimed at not just Republicans, but the entire cosmos.
Gradually, over decades of just politics and no real world experience, the walls closed in, leaving Biden with little more than an anger and pedophile impulses he cannot escape. What’s left is a rotten old man with no redeeming qualities.
Pray that Trump erases every microscopic speck of Old Joe’s malignant regime, and may the memory of this calamity help guide our future.
Readers will recall that the son of a bitch had to be invited in. He cannot just storm in and hold the Congress captive.
I recall writing to the Speaker years ago asking why another disgraced figure was being brought in , when he could just be told to mail the report in.
Something about tradition, and respect, and the usual bull crap Republican worshippers of protocol substitute for moral reasoning.
Or they could have walked out en mass.
Nah That would have taken spine. Better to sit there and let him micturate in your face. Tradition, comity, collegiality, “we”, and all those dead concepts.
What are they trying to preserve here, again?
much like vampires, they do have to be invited in,
he was always one part ignorant, (understanding US history, government) one part vicious (see clarence thomas) one part indifferent, (too many to count) that really was a wretched spectacle that some like Byron York, decided to grade on a curve, how do our enemies in Tehran, Beijing, Moskva, Doha Sanaa see him as easy pickings,
This speech filled me with dread. To think that an American President would deliver such a bellicose, mendacious, and detached from reality speech that was filled with hollow promises. It’s not a good sign.
He signaled that he would tell any whopper, use any devious method, offer any bribe, slander his opponents, denigrate the SCOTUS, and propose hair-brained solutions such as a harbor in Gaza; all in pursuit of re-election It was downright frightening that he had the temerity and openness to show who he really is – a hollow politician with no core of integrity, sense of decency, or wisdom. A man who has become the epitome of an over ambitious, deceitful, treacherous loser of a politician.
I don’t know about others, but this SOTU speech has frightened me. This man is the face of a group of people who want to create an autocracy or worse in this country. We need to do all we can within our individual power to see that they don’t succeed.
J.J.:
Biden has frightened me for a long time, so this speech did nothing to make that worse. His “red wedding” speech in September of 2022 was similar. I think he believed it paid off for him and he’s sticking with the approach.
his string puller seem to think so, thats why if one still can’t decide who to vote for after this, I don’t know what to tell them,
miguel+cervantes (7:05 pm) said: “if one still can’t decide who to vote for after this, I don’t know what to tell them,”
I have *nothing* (civil) to say on the subject to such people. NOTHING.
“he had the temerity and openness to show who he really is – a hollow politician with no core of integrity, sense of decency, or wisdom. This man is the face of a group of people who want to create an autocracy or worse in this country.” J.J.
The “group of people who want to create an autocracy or worse in this country” would be powerless without the support of the millions who are so lost to common sense and decency that they agree with the commenters who declared; “Great speech!” “Unifying speech that will bring us together!” “Statesmanlike speech!”
A highly relevant, updated and paraphrased quote;
“The danger to America is not Biden but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Biden presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Biden, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming another prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Biden, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
At the heart of our problem lies not the Bidens and Obamas, not the deep state or corrupted media or our now weaponized injustice system.
Those could in time be corrected. Where the true heart of the problem lies is in “the vast confederacy of fools” who are composed of a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. It is they who present the real obstacle to the needed corrections.
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
An immoral and irreligious people are congenitally incapable of facing hard truths about the depravity they have embraced. Virtue signalers instinctively view self-reflection as an anathema.
“I think he believed it paid off for him and he’s sticking with the approach.”
– Neo
Yep. Still, it’s surprising that he would be so open about his intentions in the SOTU. Surely, he must realize that even independents and Republicans watch or read the speech. Not one iota of bipartisanship? Not a smidgen of respect for the opposing party? Only a dedicated partisan ideologue could think this speech helped his cause.
I’m planning to give more money than I’ve ever given to politicians because of his speech. He re-vitalized my desire to help the GOP.
when you do not acquire something legitimately you lose respect for it,
}}} crowing that Biden’s speech was the f-words …
“Fatuous” and “Folderol” ?? 😛
P.S., this is what happens when you order a PotUS by mail. 😀
DNW (6:08 pm) said, in part: “Or they could have walked out en mass.”
(I did very recently sample on You Tube audio-visual portions of Biden’s address.)
I was thinking, as Biden ranted and roared his demagogic lies, that Speaker Johnson should simply walk away, on camera, rather than settle for an occasional eye-roll.
And I have wondered, for many years now, why (IN H#LL) those in attendance with whom I theoretically sympathize politically sit there like frightened little children in situations like this one, rather than walk out en masse.
DNW is entirely right “that the son of a bitch had to be invited in” — and I have thought that as well for many years now. To walk out en masse “would have taken spine.”
I’d write a parting shot here, but DNW has said it as well as I can — yea, better:
I admit I had to look up the word “micturate”. It means “urinate”. How exquisitely apropos. Yes (sarcastically), “Better to sit there and let him micturate in your face.”
Horse doody like this is right up there in my list of reasons why I do not identify as a Republican [but as a libertarian-leaning conservative]. Hats off to DNW here.
unlike Amazon you can’t ship him back, there is another phrase that comes to mind from the roman a clef, the Spike, spoken by a character much like Patrick Moynihan, about UN delegates, retromingent, this was back when Arafat was given the run of Turtle Bay, when Idi Amin was as well,
Will Biden’s pointed attack on the Supreme Court Justices make them more sympathetic to the issues they will decide concerning Trump?
I think Obama directly called out the justices during one of his SOTU diatribes, but this seemed to be more of a threat– along the lines of Schumer’s “You have unleashed the whirlwind”.
It would be easy to dismiss his ridiculous statement, if taken on its fate– the SC should not be subject to electoral or political influence. It was just so strident.
Will the veiled threats (and not so veiled) increase? Will at some point will mob rule influence their decisions?
See Michelle Cottle’s NYT op-ed “Dark Brandon in the House” written before the speech. This is what his followers wanted, and what fires up his base.
Chris Coons was telling us before the speech that Biden was going to unify us by pointing to his achievements. I guess Biden’s handlers knew better. Biden’s achievements are slim and scanty, and not likely to excite anybody, so he needs to ramp up the hate and the fear.
neo on March 8, 2024 at 6:50 pm said:
J.J.:
Biden has frightened me for a long time, so this speech did nothing to make that worse. His “red wedding” speech in September of 2022 was similar. I think he believed it paid off for him and he’s sticking with the approach.
miguel+cervantes on March 8, 2024 at 7:05 pm said:
his string puller seem to think so, thats why if one still can’t decide who to vote for after this, I don’t know what to tell them,
Biden was viewed as old and out of it.
What some have noticed is that he seems more “with it” when he is giving an angry rant. So they might have been taking advantage of his angry nature to make him seem on top of things and capable. It also fits in with their “dark brandon” meme.
‘bearded marxist’ highly credentialed, the uniparty moved heaven and earth to put him in office, yet miss o’donnell didn’t do worse than previous candidates for the race nor subsequent ones,
when assasins have targeted the justices, and the security services have looked away, one should take care
https://revolver.news/2024/03/the-left-has-to-replace-biden-but-can-they/
@ MJR,
Yeah, but I forgot the “e”.
Sat looking at it and wondering why “en mass” didn’t look right, then shrugged and moved on.
Next time I type “en banc” I’ll probably add an “e” out of some vague sense I have forgotten something.
Ha. Thanks for the charitably tactful correction/reminder.
I watched last night before going to bed. Imagine if Trump had given the exact same kind of speech- pablum to the base done in an angry, hectoring, sputtering, and slurring fashion as done by Biden last night. I can’t imagine many Republicans would have been truly happy with such a performance, though many might have lied about it.
In short, the speech was to the hard-core leftist base of the Democrat Party, and will convince no one who is truly on the fence to vote for Joe Biden. Anyone not already committed to voting for him won’t come away thinking, “I like that Joe Biden.” Most will see it for what it was- a nasty awful human being giving a speech consisting of a bunch of cliches policy positions, some of which aren’t even coherent logically, if not pretty much all of it.
My secondary impression, perhaps wrong because it requires me to believe that Joe Biden really does have a lot of input into this, is this: Biden is deeply angry that he is not only not loved by a majority of Americans, but that he is actively detested by a majority that seems to grow by the week. It rankles him that he is largely believed to be the dumbest president in the history of the country, which he proves accurate every single day.
Even one of Bari Weiss’s regulars had positive things to say about Joe Schmoe’s speech. https://www.thefp.com/p/tgif-the-state-of-tg-is-strong-sotu-biden
I take that with a grain of salt, since her pieces are usually written in a very flippant style. But it sounds like the Democrats really were satisfied overall, sad as that might be.
I would compare him to Fredo Corleone, but he knew his limitation, maybe Beast Rabban if he had lived to a ripe old age,
ah olivia nuzzi, this a woman who signed up with anthony weiner after he had first humiliated himself, with another reprise to come,
Not to divert here but it again puts me in mind of the many common French and legal Latin phrases that used to be lightly employed in normal adult conversation when I was a kid. “Mom, he was persona not what?”
Not among farmers discussing the next year’s harvest of course, but among city dwelling college grads who came to young adulthood in the 40’s and 50s, and who may have had some experience in corporate or government work, exclusive of academia.
I am referring principally to our mothers. The absurd idea of my father ever uttering a phrase like ” je ne sais quoi”, “sang-froid” , or even “raison d’être”, makes me laugh out loud; no matter how many or few years of French he needed to graduate.
However, “even” a top steno at “The Bureau”, or an executive secretary (job description not corporate title) would have knowledge and familiarity in use of these terms and phrases.
What happened?
By the way and speaking of deeply angry men, has anybody checked into the reaction of Mr. Steatopygous Male himself, leader of the Resistance ® ?
Oldvermin, I think his name is. Shouts and glares a lot. Used to be a sportscaster.
The end of the road we are on is bodies being stacked and cities looking like Mosul, Iraq. See the 2019 movie of the same name.
Zerohedge has usefully posted a link to Victor Davis Hanson’s SOTU reaction video with Tucker Carlson, but — also for those preferring — the transcript text
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/victor-davis-hanson-one-angry-biden-lie-after-another
To him, it was as bad and nefarious as you’ve been told.
Shadow linked to Bari Weiss’s take on the speech.
She started, “Well guys, Biden looked great and delivered the State of the Union well. Aggressive, confident, smiling, strong, tanned. As New York magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi quipped: “I guess there’s no adderall shortage at the White House.”
My initial reaction was, ‘pretty funny’.
Her take was essentially, it was a success because he didn’t need a gurney on exit.
But really. It’s now a joke that the POTUS has to be drugged to perform? And Bari Weiss is considered one of the reasonable liberals. Sick.
DNW (8:32 pm), I appreciate the humor in your reply [and in subsequent posts tonight]. See ya . . .
Dow had a trademark in the sixties (?) “Better living through chemistry.”
Cap has my attention.
The day and night after SOTU, Ds are very happy at the Home-care patient has energy. Thanks to meth or Adderal or whatever stimulant this sad, aging man in decline has been cattle-prodded into conforming.
Thus. This year’s polarisation is worse than the last too many years time. Biden the Oligarch’s puppet leaves me feeling the US slipping further away from her foundations into fascism.
Even when Trump has a very good week, we then have the pantomime horse hyper-activated. The US “great resort” sees folks by millions leaving Blue states for Red because of the Democrat’s crime surge.
There already was no place for compromise in US politics. Now, the divide becomes a rapid, self-amplifying cleavage fault. In other words, grimmer prospects supplant the grim.
These stresses of division continue not unabated but piled on. Will we have the November losers side chomping for Civil War? I’ll be quite surprised if we do not.
The condom that roared.
Metaphor alert:
“Report: Five killed by aid packages airdropped by US;
“At least five dead, multiple injured, after suffering direct hits from humanitarian aid packages airdropped by the US.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386449
Who ya’ gonna blame…
is there an Arab word for chutzpah, you want it sent doordash,
https://twitter.com/mirandadevine/status/1766507989207290013
honestly did they sign the bud light marketing team,
Another magnificent “Biden” achievement!
“Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/inside-most-ridiculous-jobs-report-recent-history-12-million-immigrant-jobs-added-one
Opening graf:
‘ Last month we though that the January jobs report was the “most ridiculous in recent history” but, boy, were we wrong because this morning the Biden department of goalseeked propaganda (aka BLS) published the February jobs report, and holy crap was that something else. Even Goebbels would blush….’
Guess “he” hit this one outta the park…
Be PROUD, guys….
Do I have to go Kenobi ‘from a certain point of view’ that is the objective, just like you give money to Hamas, what do you think will happen, eventually,
https://twitter.com/cwbchicago/status/1766509502692499677
personnel is policy, if you can’t fix and you want to wreck something, chose that skill set
Indeed, honesty is for chumps…
To be sure, “Biden” has NO NEED to be honest… (And AI has let out the—supercharged—fox amongst the chickens…)
Here’s Dr. Robert Malone’s take on the recent Tucker Carlson Benz interview…and it’s damning:
“When Military Rule Supplants Democracy”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/when-military-rule-supplants-democracy
Opening graf:
Key grafs:
Old news?
(Alt-neu news….)
I see/hear/feel the WEF/WTF’s long and gnarly hand….
the man is crooked as the day is long, now the question are more marks, than those who can discern,
of course Orange Man, was quite equanimous but crazy Grandpa simpson is given too much credit, for not keeling over like a redwood,
exactly, Malone is the leading authority on RNA, but do they address his concerns, of course not they give dyspeptic hobbit Hotez the floor (reminds of marvin Monroe from the Simpsons) another dwarf fauci, who qualifies in the Hammer role of fame, etc, the Swede who did as much without lockdowns Trufell,is a Jeopardy question, and Feely Ferguson is not throttled every time he steps outside,
Much like with Richard Levine, don’t give this jive, about Rachel, who only has a skill to kill and confuse, the former he did to the state of Pennsylvania’s elderly, the second he does every other day, Cpl Klinger dressed n dragged to try to get out of the Army, today well selection of proper hose seems to prerequisite for advancement
those in East Asia, and Eurasia are amused at what goes on in Oceania, we’re not in on the punchline
And from the “True north, strong and free”….
“Christine Van Geyn: Under Bill C-63, An Online Comment Could Cost You Thousands”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/03/09/christine-van-geyn-under-bill-c-63-an-online-comment-could-cost-you-thousands/
+ Bonus:
WEF/WTF, Canada Edition: Diversity north of the border is also quite rich…
“Anti-Israel Protesters Shout ‘Go Back To Europe’ Outside Synagogue North Of Toronto”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/03/09/anti-israel-protesters-shout-go-back-to-europe-outside-synagogue-north-of-toronto/
seeing as miss freedland nee chemezov is frau bissima, its a source of concerned, trudeau is not really in charge, either,
https://twitter.com/osint613/status/1766532452430844178
Geoffrey+Britain on March 8, 2024 at 7:22 pm
Great comment addressing the core problem is that in our system we need to put the praise or blame for a regime’s performance on to the real sovereign. And for us that means “some of We the People” favor destroying our constitutional order and republic, and “some others of We the People” are still fighting to regain and retain it.
But I did “misremember” Adam’s language as “a virtuous and religious people” rather than “a moral and religious” one. While confirming the correctness of your version I came across this older article that you and others here might find favorable [although I have not yet read it myself, I hope to do so eventually]:
https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/did-america-have-christian-founding Mark David Hall, Did America Have a Christian Founding? [June 7, 2011; 29 min read]
On the other hand, virtue still has a place, as James Madison, in The Federalist Papers, No. 47, did say “sufficient virtue among men for self-government”…, cited in https://constitutionallaw.regent.edu/preserving-a-constitution-designed-for-a-moral-and-religious-people/ Mark D. Martin, PRESERVING A CONSTITUTION DESIGNED FOR A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PEOPLE; August 3, 2020.
TJ on March 9, 2024 at 5:53 am said:
“There already was no place for compromise in US politics. Now, the divide becomes a rapid, self-amplifying cleavage fault. In other words, grimmer prospects supplant the grim” [of a possible violent or insurrectional CW 2.0]. Clearly a real SOTU would identify this horrid prospect; indicate that we are not strong while we are facing a force of separation and disunity almost as great as in 1859/60; and seek or propose some means for correcting this, if partly by compromise and partly by force of new law and partly by force of arms.
Barry Meislin on March 9, 2024 at 1:09 pm said:
“Report: Five killed by aid packages airdropped by US…”
But the Israel National News report says “Gaza reports say that at least five people were killed and others injured … after aid packages airdropped by the US hit them directly…”. Thus it is still not clear if this information was verified by “responsible” Israeli’s or just accepting a statement from the Gazan “authorities”. In any case, any parent or responsible adult would have been watching their children during this drop and keeping them away from a potential landing point, but still near enough to get to it quickly afterwards. I suppose winds could shift the load by 10 to 50 feet from its initially indicated landing point? [Any experts here?] That is quite a hazardous shift – so “someone” should have been alerting the recipients to be careful to that extent. But if you are starving I suppose you don’t pay much attention to such advice.
@ Shadow & Brian E: the author of the post at the free press was Nellie Bowles, not Bari Weiss.
I’m still waiting to see what Bari says; she’s going to have to parse things carefully to avoid alienating her Democrat readers who are still sipping, though no longer mainlining, the leftist koolaid, while acknowledging that the criticisms of the Republicans are basically spot on.
Matt Taibbi has no such inhibitions left.
https://www.racket.news/p/state-tv-slobbers-over-state-of-the
“Could state media in the GDR, Soviet Union, Maoist China, or Pinochet’s Chile have reviewed a leader’s speech as breathlessly as Joe Biden’s State of the Union? Listen before you answer”
It’s for paid subscribers, but I decided Matt earned my money with the Twitter Files.
The WaPo story about the CNN poll was in one of Miguel’s links.
https://twitter.com/mirandadevine/status/1766507989207290013