Tonight, I watched both President Biden's SOTU address and the Republican response given by newly elected Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
For starters, President Biden might have not said it directly, but he is running for re-election. If there were any Democrats wavering about Biden in the wake of the classified docs affair or about his age in general, they are not wavering now as Biden gave an address which was both forceful and compassionate.
Perhaps the best moment of his speech was when he addressed the parents of Tyre Nichols. While the circumstances were different, Biden understands the grief of losing a child and what it means to suffer. He also pointedly reminded those assembled that he nor most white parents in this country never have to talk to their children about what to do if they are stopped by the police because of the color of their skin. While it's true the police who murdered Nichols were also black there does exist a fundamental lack of respect by police towards African-Americans merely going about their business. Even one is speeding whilst going about one's business this does not warrant being beaten to death in the streets.
I also liked how Biden killed the Republicans with kindness whether it was praising Mitch McConnell (who looked like he wanted to hide under his seat) to how much he was looking forward to seeing Republican Congressmen at the ground-breaking ceremonies for infrastructure projects they voted against. The Republicans did themselves very few favors tonight.
Republicans did themselves no favors by repeatedly calling President Biden a liar when he truthfully spoke of GOP proposals to cut Medicare and Social Security. Marjorie Taylor Greene did herself no favors by calling President Biden a liar while wearing a fur coat which made her look like Cruella DeVille. Republicans did themselves no favors by shouting "the border" while President Biden was addressing a man whose daughter died of a fentanyl overdose at the age of 20.
Republicans really did themselves no favor by choosing Sarah Huckabee Sanders to give the GOP response. Sanders began the response by claiming she did not believe much of what President Biden said. Considering that she spent two years shoveling defeated, former President Trump's bullshit down our throats, her opening salvo was a hollow one.
Equally hollow was her claims that President Biden had been captured by a woke, left-wing mob and that the choice was between normal and crazy. If Sanders thinks Marjorie Taylor Greene heckling the President while wearing a fur coat is normal, then her views of normality are not rooted in reality.
It's also hard to take Sanders extolling the virtues of the Little Rock Nine seriously when her views on education do not permit the teaching of what happened to the Little Rock Nine in the first place. I very much doubt Sanders would be capable of speaking to the parents of Tyre Nichols in the way President Biden did.
Despite her claims that she represents a new generation of Republican leadership, Sanders is at heart still a spokesperson for Donald Trump and Trumpism with all the cruelty that comes with it.
If Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the best that Republicans can do then I like President Biden's chances in 2024.
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