This week RJ Caster voices his opinion on President Biden’s State of the Union address, in the right column.

The scrollbars to the immediate right of each column will get you to the bottom of each of those columns, individually. The scrollbar on the far right of the page scrolls down to previous days’ posts. 

Use the far-right scrollbar (which in this case, has nothing to do with position on the political horseshoe) to read last week’s comments on Biden’s SOTU address. 

A thorough, detailed column on President Biden's State of the Union address, by left-column contributing pundit Ken Zino, may be found in The Gray Area.

Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s “Beautiful Bloviation” is in the right column. Zino’s “Biden’s Call to Arms” is in the left column.

We welcome your comments on the State of the Union address or any other political news and issues we’ve covered recently (and some which we may not have covered). Email editors@thehustings.news and please a.) keep it civil and b.) use the email subject line to indicate whether you consider yourself “right” or “left” politically, so we can run your comments in the appropriate column.

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By Stephen Macaulay

Biden was boisterous, bold, bullish, and even brash, but. . .

 Pop quiz:

Who made the following statements?

When were they made?

“Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is surging.”

“U.S. stock markets have soared 70 percent, adding more than $12 trillion to our nation’s wealth.”  

“[W]e are restoring our nation’s manufacturing might. . . . America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration, with thousands upon thousands of plants and factories being planned or being built.  Companies are not leaving; they are coming back to the USA.”


Answers:

President Donald J. Trump

February 4, 2020; State of the Union Address

All of that sounds pretty good — and somewhat familiar — doesn’t it?

And, of course, Trump, the incumbent, lost the presidency to Joe Biden.

The State of the Union address is prescribed in Article 2, Section 3, of the Constitution:

“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. . . .”

Odds are if you work for a large organization of any type you’ve been required to attend an all-hands address presented by the leader of the corporation or the charity.

And odds are the nicest thing you did when you got the advisory about attendance was to roll your eyes.

If there was any way to miss the bluster and the blah-blah-blah you did it. (“Erm. . .I have to get a root canal. . . .”)

Yet somehow we (yes, I guess this means me, too) expect that the American public is going to watch the address or, at the very least, been keen on catching up on the content delivered by the president.

Forget it. It didn’t happen.

Yes, those who are deeply involved in watching MSNBC or Fox News undoubtedly were jonesing for the speech.

But Biden partisans might only reconsider their support if, say, he had a 20-minute Mitch McConnell moment.

And Trump supporters wouldn’t change their mind about Biden even were he to lead the assembled in the House of Representatives’ chamber in a “Hang Mike Pence!” chant.

What really matters is what is said — by both Biden and Trump — between now and November 5.

The State of the Union is really not much more than obligatory smoke and mirrors.

I mean, Trump closed his last (and I hope it really is his last) State of the Union sounding, well, Bidenesque:

“America is the place where anything can happen.  America is the place where anyone can rise.  And here, on this land, on this soil, on this continent, the most incredible dreams come true.

“This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece.  We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored.  Our brightest discoveries are not yet known.  Our most thrilling stories are not yet told.  Our grandest journeys are not yet made.  The American Age, the American Epic, the American adventure has only just begun.

“Our spirit is still young, the sun is still rising, God’s grace is still shining, and, my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come.”

Sounds like a guy with the sort of vision that we’d like to elect.

Right. . . ?

-30-

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