Biden should hope he gets heckled at his State of the Union speech

WASHINGTON— President Joe Biden should hope he gets heckled by Republicans when he gives his State of the Union address on Thursday, just as he was last year.

Here's why.

Biden's campaign for a second term is in trouble. His job approval rating, normally a reliable indicator of an incumbent's chances, is mired below 40%.

So the stakes for the State of the Union address, usually a forgettable event, are unusually high.

The president and his aides have been getting a tsunami of public advice from other Democrats, including strategists who worked for Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, on how to improve his prospects.

They say Biden needs to accomplish three goals: He needs to quell voters' worries that at 81 he is too old to seek a second term. He needs to tackle, head-on, the issues on voters' minds: high prices and immigration. And he needs to frame the election as a binary choice between him and former President Donald Trump instead of a referendum on his first term.

For months, Biden has tried to joke his way out of voters' concerns over his age — or worse, reacted angrily to questions about it.

"It's crazy to think that if you don't talk about it, people won't think he's old," David Axelrod, Obama's campaign strategist, said recently. "You won't get a hearing unless you at least acknowledge to people, 'Yeah, I get it.'"

Last week Biden took a half step in that direction, telling late-night television host Seth Meyers that both candidates are old, and that voters should focus on the differences between them.

"Take a look at the other guy — he's about as old as I am," the president said of the 77-year-old Trump. "It's about how old your ideas are. Look, I mean, this is a guy who wants to take us back. He wants to take us back on Roe v. Wade, he wants to take us back on a whole range of issues."

That was a good start, but probably not enough.

"I don't think they've put it to bed," said Doug Sosnik, who helped Bill Clinton win a second term in 1996. "It's still an issue. He needs to lean more forward on it.… This isn't an issue he's going to win; he just has to get to the point where he's not losing on it."

"We'll have to do it again," a Biden aide acknowledged.

Biden is unlikely to raise the age issue in his State of the Union speech. But merely by turning in a competent performance, he can rebut opponents' claims that he's not fit for the office.

In his address a year ago, he was handed a minor triumph by Republican zealots, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whose heckling and the back-and-forth that followed showed he can still be quick on his feet. The president should hope for more of that kind of help again this year.

On the economy, aides say Biden will recount the achievements of his first three years, including bipartisan legislation on infrastructure and high-tech manufacturing.

On inflation, which is easing but still troublesome, he'll talk about his push to negotiate down prescription prices for Medicare and his efforts to ban hidden "junk fees" charged by banks, hotels and other businesses.

And he'll repeat his demand for legislation to "make the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share," meaning higher taxes on corporations and individuals making more than $400,000 a year.

On immigration, he'll ask Congress — again — to pass the bipartisan Senate border bill that has been blocked by House Republicans. He previewed that pitch during his visit to Brownsville, Texas, last week, puckishly appealing to Trump to join him in support of the bill. With House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sitting behind him, that part of the speech could set off fireworks.

He'll talk about a long list of other issues as well, including reproductive rights — possibly including the recent ruling by Alabama's conservative Supreme Court that had the effect of shutting down in vitro fertilization in the state.

The test of Biden's success will be whether he can turn a speech that too often devolves into a laundry list of priorities into a coherent narrative of what he would seek in a second term.

"You need a compelling, consistent narrative on where the country is and how you're going to make it better," Sosnik said. "It's got to be forward looking."

Which brings us to the third goal: making the 2024 election a choice between two flawed candidates, not a referendum on Biden's first three years.

"Most presidents can't win a referendum, and Biden surely can't, given the environment and the mood of the country right now," Axelrod said on the podcast he co-hosts, "Hacks on Tap." "If it's a referendum, it's going to go poorly. If it's a choice, I think he's got a shot to win."

Biden offered a preview of that theme in his appearance with Meyers, when he framed the election as a choice between two old men — only one of whom "wants to take us back."

Given the protocol of a State of the Union address, he's unlikely to take Trump on by name, as he's been doing more often in campaign events — calling the former president "dangerous," a "threat to democracy" and, turning one of Trump's favorite insults back at him, "a loser."

His rhetoric on Thursday will be more elevated, but the underlying goal will still be to make the contrast clear.

One way he can do that is on foreign policy, where he will press the Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, to put his pending request for military aid for Ukraine to a vote. Biden is likely to remind Congress that defending U.S. allies against Russian President Vladimir Putin is a core national security goal. The comparison with Trump, an unabashed Putin fan, won't need to be spelled out.

So here's a television recommendation rarely made before. This will be a State of the Union speech worth watching — even if the president isn't lucky enough to get heckled again.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 02/14/24: Biden's memory is failing. So is Trump's. The question is whose flaws are more dangerous
• 02/07/24: Will Biden's 'Goldilocks' airstrikes against Iran-backed militias work?
• 12/06/23: Will Joe survive leftists --- and Gaza?
• 11/22/23: Don't let Xi and Biden's agreements fool you
• 11/08/23: Biden says the US must help Israel and Ukraine succeed --- he's staking his reputation on it
• 11/02/23: Today's wars and the international order
• 10/25/23: Biden says the US must help Israel and Ukraine succeed --- he's staking his reputation on it
• 10/05/23: Biden and Trump want working-class votes. The economy may decide who gets them
• 09/13/23: Zelensky is coming to Washington to ask for more Ukraine aid. Congress should say yes
• 09/13/23: Voters think Biden's too old to run again. Can he persuade them that they're wrong?
• 08/23/23: Canada is recruiting immigrants from Silicon Valley to boost its economy. It might work
• 07/05/23: Bizarre standoff with Wagner Group's Prigozhin weakens Putin. But don't count him out
• 06/27/23: Blinken tried to build a floor under US-China relations. He may have to keep doing it
• 05/09/23: With just weeks left to strike a deal, it's time to worry about the debt ceiling
• 05/02/23: A centrist, third-party alternative for 2024 is a nice idea --- but a nightmare in practice
• 04/25/23: Trump seems to have a firm grip on GOP polls --- but his rivals think they can do better
• 04/04/23: Ukraine is counting on its spring offensive against Russia. Biden has a stake in it too
• 03/22/23: Silicon Valley Bank's collapse may be a blessing in disguise
• 03/07/23: DeSantis wants to displace Trump as the GOP's 2024 nominee. But he has hurdles to overcome
• 02/21/23: Biden's 2024 presidential campaign harks back to past Dem triumphs
• 02/14/23: Chinese balloon is gone, but it's still making US-China relations harder to manage
• 01/24/23: Biden said the pandemic is over. But, aw shucks!, the pandemic just won't cooperate
• 01/17/23: The war in Ukraine could become a long, frozen conflict. Are we ready for that?
• 01/10/23: The real winner from the House fight?
• 12/28/22: Why Trump will never go to jail over Jan. 6
• 12/20/22: Democracy around the world is looking a little healthier, at least next to the alternative
• 12/13/22: Biden's policy makes Ukraine fight by rules Russia doesn't follow
• 12/09/22: Iran protests have shoved the nuclear issue off center stage. It will be back
• 09/20/22: Biden sent the wrong message on COVID. He can still fix it
• 09/20/22: Putin's brutality in Ukraine can get worse. Get ready for a chilly winter
• 09/13/22: China's economy is slowing, its population aging. That could make it dangerous
• 06/28/22: To deter China on Taiwan, Biden needs to reassure
• 05/24/22: India has become a US partner in countering China --- a limited partner, that is
• 05/11/22: Slow Joe's premature self-congratulation won't help the US in Ukraine
• 05/03/22: Can the US deter Putin from using his arsenal of battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine?
• 04/08/22:Biden's budget is big. Dems will vote to make it bigger
• 03/22/22: Ukraine's resistance offers a useful lesson to Taiwan
• 03/15/22: China wanted to appear neutral between Russia and Ukraine. It isn't
• 02/22/21: Who needs an invasion? Putin's offensive against Ukraine has been underway for a long time
• 02/09/21: If Putin wants an exit from the Ukraine crisis, the offramps are open
• 11/30/21: Biden wants to focus on China. Putin has another idea
• 11/23/21: Our oldest president just turned 79. He might have something to learn from the second-oldest
• 11/16/21: Can Biden and Xi talk their way out of a slide into conflict?
• 10/13/21: Congress has a chance to take bipartisan action on Facebook. Don't let it slip away
• 09/24/21: Can Dems win on crime issues with murders rising? Biden thinks so
• 06/29/21: Can Dems win on crime issues with murders rising? Biden thinks so
• 04/20/21:Afghanistan's war -- and America's stakes in it -- won't end when the troops leave
• 03/31/21: Here's why our new cold war with China could be a good thing
• 02/25/21: Sen. Joe Manchin drives Dems crazy. Here's why they need more senators like him
• 08/11/20: Goodbye to traditional political conventions --- and good riddance

• 05/19/20: We won't end COVID-19 with 'test and trace'
• 04/07/20: Joe Biden is stuck in his basement. It just might help him win
• 03/10/20: Where did Bernie's revolution go wrong?
• 03/05/20: Dems give Trump good reason to smile
• 02/18/20: Who will be the Un-Bernie?
• 02/11/20: Buttigieg wants to be the Goldilocks candidate. It just might work
• 01/21/20: The world according to Bernie
• 09/04/19: Trump's draft deal with the Taliban looks ugly, but it may be the best we can get
• 04/22/19: Something is missing from media-fawning Buttigieg campaign --- his stance on major issues
• 03/14/19: Biden, If He Runs, Will Face A Cruel Irony

Doyle McManus
Los Angeles Times
(TNS)

Doyle McManus is an American journalist, columnist, who appears often on Public Broadcasting Service's Washington Week.