Even for Opinion editors, it must be admitted that covering the State of the Union address is often a grudging, dutiful part of the job. This was not one of those years; the stakes were higher than usual. This year, the address was widely seen as an opportunity for President Biden to reset his re-election campaign. In polling averages, he trails Donald Trump. Did Biden succeed? Times Opinion kept score during the address, in a manner of speaking. We asked columnists and writers to assess his address overall, as well as to pick out the best and worst moments and what else mattered. Overall, our writers were impressed — and some were surprised. "Where has this Joe Biden been hiding these past three years?" asked Bret Stephens. Michelle Goldberg wrote, "What an unexpectedly rousing speech!" Pamela Paul pointed out that "The room gets a lot of credit tonight for providing the energy and enthusiasm — even the jeers — that an old pol like Biden clearly thrives on." That said, not all our columnists and writers were impressed. Ross Douthat wrote: "A great many people are going to talk themselves into believing that this was a good speech, a real barnburner. That happy talk will be good for Biden; he needs stiffened spines. But it wasn't actually a good speech; it was a rant that offered little to the disillusioned, and any boost will be ephemeral." And Megan Stack was critical of the president's remarks on the Israel-Gaza war. "With more than 30,000 dead, a looming famine and unambiguous protests from within his own party, Biden absolutely owed Americans a more direct explanation for his continued support for the onslaught on Gaza," she wrote. Our contributors graded the speech on a scale of 1 to 10, and there was a wide range of responses. What did you think? We're also asking readers to weigh in. After all, the most important audience for Biden's address is the American people. It will take months to get their scorecard, on Election Day.
Here's what we're focusing on today:
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Games Here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle and Spelling Bee. If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com.
If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday, March 8, 2024
Opinion Today: Was this the State of the Union that Biden needed?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment