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Joe Biden listed them all in his State of the Union address: the achievements he has to show. It was a long list, starting with the 12 million jobs created so far during his tenure. With the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. With the return of widespread normality after long Covid years and a turbulent and almost failed transfer of power after the last presidential election. For Biden, the United States can again be described in one word: “opportunities”.
Confrontation in front of an audience of millions
The US President was politically fortunate that many of his setbacks and worst mistakes came in his first year in office, and many of his successes in his second. In this way, Biden was able to emphasize his role as a bridge builder even across the deepest rifts between the parties.
And it was a highlight of his speech when he got the Republican opposition, live and in front of millions of the television nation, to pledge that Social Security and medical care should not be used as bargaining chips to raise the debt ceiling.
Little recognition
But Biden is not getting the credit he thinks he deserves. What’s more, Biden’s approval ratings remain historically low. Two-thirds of Americans say in polls that Biden achieved little or hardly anything in his first two years in office.
In fact, that is simply wrong. But facts mean little these days. Rather, impressions count. And some in the US are wondering whether it would be wise for Biden, now 80, to run for a second term in two years’ time.
The secret documents
A former adviser to three (unsuccessful) Democratic nominations recently put it this way: “Do I expect Biden to run again? Absolutely, no doubt. But do I think it advisable? That’s a much more complicated question.” Because at the latest since documents classified as secret that had no place there were found in Biden’s private house, just like before in Donald Trump’s residence, Biden’s biggest seller is no longer effective: Namely, that everything is different with him.
And so Biden repeatedly emphasized one thing in his “State of the Union”: that he was still a long way from reaching his goal. “Let’s finish this job,” he shouted several times into the hall, in front of which he laid out a vision for an America like before Ronald Reagan. And it’s clear who Biden wants to do the work. It was his first energetic application speech for the renewed presidential candidacy.