And based on this speech, the State of the Union is strong! At 1 hour and 15 minutes, I felt like the speech was a little long, but he hit on all the points that we anticipated and a few that were unexpected. Lauren Boebert shook her head a lot and MTG was in full force, looking like Cruella de Ville in a white fur coat and heckling from the back bench.
Overall, the speech was a bit nationalistic, very populist, but really hit the mark on all points. Most office-holders will get a small bump in popularity after the speech, and I think Biden will get a nice bump from the speech. It will be interesting to see what the overnight ratings are on the speech (they are not available at the time of writing).
The Republican response was delivered by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the newly elected governor of Arkansas. It was boilerplate republican talking points and sounded like it was written by Fox News, especially on foreign policy and the border crisis. She boldly called him old and unfit to serve as commander-in-chief at points during her response. She extolled her accomplishments and is used “wokeness” and “culture wars” like a cudgel agains Biden and the broader Left. Not only that, but she also remarked that the Biden had surrendered his presidency to the radical Left. I would keep an eye on her because she talked like she was running for President. Her response read like…
