President Biden delivered his first State of the Union address tonight (Full Transcript). With a 37% approval rate, failures in every corner of our country, and a weak foreign policy that allowed Russia to feel free to invade Ukraine, this speech was a big hill to climb. On the positive side, the President actually looked stronger during the speech than he has in other events. He surprisingly lasted for a hour. His word stumbles were few, with minimal confusion over the topics in his speech. From a delivery stand point, I'm not sure anyone could have expected any more of him. This could have been a lot worse. As it was, it was awkward, nothing special and surprising that it wasn't a complete disaster. I would rate it a 'C-' A few more stumbles and its a 'D-'. Again, no one expected an 'A'. The speech itself was disjointed & meandering. SOTU's are political speeches, and everything about this one was political. He conveniently announced releasing oil reserves, about 3 days worth, to hold down prices, which sent oil prices up. Closing US airspace to Russian planes, late. Mask mandate in Congress lifted this weekend, just in time for the SOTU. He didn't have to be so obvious. We know he was trying to target the 2022 mid-terms and make a positive impact on what appears will be a huge Democrat slaughter. And, why was the SOTU delayed until March? He had to wait until COVID mandates were cleared. Then Russia invades Ukraine, seems like a good time to further delay the SOTU, but he decides to have it anyway. Very bad timing. He failed. The speech was designed around glossy language, using popular words & phrases to make his agenda sound like something everyone could support, secure the border, fix immigration, fund the police, hold social media platforms accountable, unity, infrastructure, freedom will always succeed over tyranny, light will conquer darkness, nation of possibilities, etc. Language that everyone can applaud until you define what those words and phrases actually mean to different people. Unity and bi-partisanship were used throughout, yet the devil is in the details on these topics. Both Republicans & Democrats define those terms differently. Any unifying legislative attempt will likely fall apart when the inevitable radical, progressive programs are added under a nice title like; Equality, For the People Act, Paycheck Fairness, Pro Act, Women's Health Protection, etc., which mean something different than the title suggests when you read the bill. Making no attempt to modify his policy positions, this all appears to be a message for us to expect more of the same for 2022. Sad. The President's topics in the SOTU can be organized under 4 categories; more government, pushing his agenda, political lies, and taking credit for what he did not do. More government (meaning $$ and control). Government will help get the costs down he said; prescription drugs, insulin, child care, etc. Institute $15/hour minimum wage, he said. Spend more money for opioid crisis, mental health, veterans, and 'cancer moonshot'. Unions should not be stopped if they want to organize a company. A new prosecutor being established to fight COVID fraud. Does anyone really think this is anything other than another way to hunt down and conservatives? Gun control he said is needed to stop gun violence. Disarming American while Ukraine is arming its citizens against invasion. Unity agenda, COVID plan, more money for more things at a time when inflation is out of control he wants to spend everywhere. Pushing his agenda. The speech was full of a laundry list of his already published plans that seemed to be focused at his Democrat base. Very little was new and nothing changed to make his agenda more palatable to the two moderate Democrat members of the Senate or to any Republicans. He didn’t try to defend his failures, just ignored them. He offered a Unity agenda and supposedly a new COVID plan. There was nothing new in either. Political lies. "Trump tax cut only benefited the 1%." Even the left wing Washington Post gives the Dems '3 Pinocchios' on this one. "I'll be honest with you, like I told you " would." OMG! "Gun control does not affect the 2nd amendment." Of course not. "Voting rights under assault by the states." Read the state laws, this is not true. "Gun manufacturers are the only companies which cannot be sued." 'His SCOTUS nominee is a bridge builder!' Read her record. "COVID caused inflation & supply chain problems." Sure, and your spending, crushing of the American oil industry, and locking down the country for 2 years bears no responsibility? Taking credit for what he did not do & avoiding the mess he made. Secure the border. Touting new technology and fixing the immigration system with same old liberal programs, like Dreamers citizenship. Economic growth. 6M jobs, 5.7% growth 2021, best ever. That was the COVID bounce back. What exactly did you do? If he had not retarded growth with his policies the bounce would have been better than that! Are we back to pre-pandemic levels yet? Wrapped himself in the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Making positive statements about supporting Ukraine and then making contradictory statements. Saying he has hurt Russia since they invaded, that we would support Ukraine and then that we would never send troops to support Ukraine. His diplomatic failures and overall weakness as a leader allowed them to feel free to invade. Made in America. Taking credit for what Trump started with 'Make America Great Again' and 'America First' initiatives. Democrat responses. It is telling that there were two Democrat responses, one from the progressive squad, to their own party's Presidential SOTU! The fact that they do not agree with him on policies doesn't make him a moderate. You can tell by the policies he has supported and those he went through tonight that he is a radical, big government, liberal Democrat. His attempts to say he is a capitalist, is his weak attempt to separate himself from the Socialists. Republican response. Kim Reynolds, Republican Governor of Iowa, gave the Republican response. She was warm, direct and effective. Overall, the SOTU address resembles our country's mood these days in that it was roundly acclaimed by the left & roundly panned by the right. This happens regularly. We hear phrases like 'that's not our values', 'we must save our democracy', 'tyrants are trying to take over our country', '_________ is a Nazi', and on, and on. These phrases are spouted by both sides at the other. How can both the right & the left be shouting 'save our democracy' from the left & from the right? Both sides can't be right, ahh, correct. One has to be wrong. But, which one? Biden's speech tonight was just like that, using phrases and words that both sides can latch onto and using them to attempt to signify a desire for 'unity'. But, we all know, on both sides, that unity means do what I want, not what you want. How do we ever get to unity from this position?