Really? That Was It?

Before I get into the State of the Union, I need to note something. My friend Chip Roy received over 80% of the vote in the GOP primary in Texas last night. He was the only Republican with multiple challengers to get over 80% of the vote.

Chip is a Congressman. He stood up to Donald Trump. He forced every member of the House on record over whether they think the 2020 election was stolen. He condemned Trump’s behavior related to January 6th. He has fought the establishment Republicans repeatedly. He pushed Trump right and opposed Trump on big spending initiatives.

In short, Chip Roy is one of the most principled people I know and he is fearless. He does not cave to the police of political correctness. He does not shy away from tough fights. He’s willing to lose. In 2020, Abortion Barbie a/k/a Wendy Davis challenged him in a far more moderately shaped district. Chip refused to waffle or go left to win votes. He doubled down on his conservative principles and Christian faith. He won. And now he’s the only Republican with multiple challengers in Texas to make it through a Republican primary with over 80% of the vote. Character still matters and Chip is one of the genuine men of principle in politics.

Also, Ken Paxton needs to go and yes you should support George P. Bush against Paxton’s corruption or you’re going to have a Doug Jones moment where Texans elect a Democrat Attorney General in the fall. Bush will challenge Paxton in a runoff.

Now, on to the State of the Union.

Two days ago, President Joe Biden walked across the White House lawn alone and in a mask. Last night, we walked into a crowd of congressmen rejoicing that no more masks were needed. It was the perfect metaphor for Biden at governance and Biden at speech.

First, forgive Biden for his flubs and twisted words. He is almost eighty and has a stuttering problem. As someone who grew up with a stuttering problem, I’m sympathetic. He is neither Cicero nor Churchill, King nor Kennedy. He is Joe from Scranton. The problem was not the words or delivery. The problem was the message.

The speech last night was not for you or for me unless you are a moderate, Democrat-leaning voter who is frustrated with Biden and looking at the GOP for November. Despite all the talk about multiple audiences, Biden is trying to keep wavering moderate voters on board.

He hit on, for example, securing the border. That’s an issue he has done nothing with, but it shows up in the polling as a problem for Democrats. So he mentioned it. He called Afghanistan an “extraordinary success” but it polls terribly for him so he chose not to spend time on it. The whole thing after Ukraine sounded like it was written by pollsters panicked by the GOP’s current numbers.

The problem for Biden and the Democrats is simple. This speech is going to be forgotten in two days, but the public will still see empty store shelves, high prices, and the cost of filling up their car. The President offered nothing to address these issues. In fact, it is now widely accepted his COVID relief package sparked inflation and the President not only defended it but called for even more spending.

President Biden started with a unifying moment about Ukraine. He had applause from both the Republicans and Democrats. He then pivoted straight into an attack on the Trump tax cuts with a lie about those cuts benefiting the top 1%. Even the supposed fact-checkers rebut that.

He continued to call on Congress to pass an agenda Congress has repeatedly failed to pass and advocate for positions most Americans reject. There was no reset. He doubled down on progressivism. He doubled down on growing government. He refused to offer gas price relief but instead announced he wants to expand the green new deal.

Forget the flubs. Forget the rhetorical stumbles over Iranians instead of Ukrainians, etc. This is Biden. He is not the best orator. Forgive him those things.

The problem with the speech is that Biden offered Americans a vision of what they’ve already rejected and bookended it with calls for unity after firing Americans for not taking a vaccine.

It is really hard to tell Americans we need to get past our differences after spending two years maligning those who wouldn’t go along with his agenda. He went from calling those opposed to his agenda “racists” to calling them his “fellow Americans” and urging them to unite. But he never offered an apology for his own harsh words.

This speech offered no reset. It offered no new vision. It offered no olive branches. It was patently designed to rally Democrats and hopefully get moderates back into the camp.

The President may get a bump in the polls over Ukraine, but the polling will get trumped by gas prices and bare shelves.

Now, if you want a reaction to the President’s speech from the left, consider the Daily Show, which posted the image below and then deleted it when their crowd got triggered. But they captured the moment.

Caleb Hull @CalebJHull

The Daily Show just deleted this after their lib followers lost their minds