What Went Down During President Biden’s Speech To Congress

I agree with Nathaniel — this was a standard, meaty address to a joint session of Congress. Biden hit on early accomplishments and also didn’t give his opponents in conservative media too much ammunition (although it will be interesting to see how they cover this on Fox, Newsmax, etc).

Biden came to this address with many successes that he and his administration are proud of. He discussed a range of policy proposals that are clearly progressive in nature. It’s clear, though, that Biden, like every Democratic president before him, has to walk a tightrope when it comes to race. When race and racial inequality were mentioned, the topics seemed to be mentioned as a way of checking boxes, but it’s a reminder that Biden, even as he and his administration work to advance some racially progressive policies, is a pragmatic politician who thinks that the middle is preferred to the poles. It’ll be interesting to see how Black activists respond to this address.

This was a speech that focused on economics. If passed, Biden’s economic agenda would be genuinely transformative. The juxtaposition of transformative policy with dull speech-making, though, is really something. It’s almost as if Biden’s team wanted to keep the speech relatively low-key so that the worst his fiercest opponents on the political right can say is that it made them fall asleep.