Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address takeaways: Bipartisanship, America first, and the first beginnings of his re-election campaign

1. He repeatedly put America — and its citizens’ immediate concerns — first.

Biden focused on his “Made in America” thrust to ensure manufacturing jobs return to the US. He spoke of his plan to spend $52 billion in subsidies and additional tax credits to companies that make semiconductor chips in the US, declaring “We are going to make sure the supply chain for America begins in America.”

He used the phrase “finish the job” (while talking about the task of repairing the US economy) a dozen times in his speech, a report in The New York Times noted.

2. And he spoke relatively less on America’s global role.

An analysis by David E Sanger in The New York Times noted that the President chose to downplay his formidable achievements of reunifying NATO and rallying allies against Russia and China. The reason was probably the awareness that “America’s re-engagement in the world is both expensive and, at the opening of an election cycle, a tough political sell”, Sanger wrote. The President mentioned Ukraine only briefly, and although the Ukrainian Ambassador to the US had been invited to the Address, he did not refer to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

3. His theme was bipartisan, even though it contained some tough words for the Republicans.

Even with the inevitably acrimonious presidential campaign for 2024 ahead, Biden peached the mantra of bipartisanship. Analysts noted that he began his speech by congratulating the new Republican Speaker of the House, Representative Kevin McCarthy, and his appeal: “To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there’s no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well.”

The American people had given their representatives “a clear message”, he said: “Fighting for the sake of the fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere… We’ve been sent here to finish the job, in my view.”

But he also sparred combatively with some Republican members of Congress who heckled him, calling him “liar” and rejecting his assertions with “bullshit”. He delivered some tough lines on the upcoming debt ceiling debate, pointed to high deficits under Donald Trump, and accused Republicans of attempted hostage-taking, The Washington Post reported.

President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP/PTI Photo)

4. The Address gave a preview of his 2024 messaging.

The Washington Post report also flagged several indicators of his likely campaign in the race for re-election to the White House. He geared his speech extensively to blue-collar voters, the report said, and went after “Big Oil”, “Big Pharma”, and “Big Tech”.

He reached out to economically-left out citizens, saying: “Here’s my message to all of you out there: I have your back.” Both The Washington Post and The New York Times noted his mention of several relatively modest populist ideas focused on commonly relatable issues like credit card fees, airline fees, and overdraft fees. “Biden has touched on many of these issues before, but you begin to see the beginnings of a 2024 stump speech,” The Washington Post analysis said.

5. And the President made a big pitch for democracy.

Writing in The New York Times, Sanger said Biden tried to make the case that “democracy works”. “In the past two years, democracies have become stronger, not weaker,’’ he said. “Autocracies have grown weaker, not stronger.”

It was, Sanger wrote, part of the President’s argument that while democracy is messy, once America gets its act together, it can prevail. “Before I came to office the story was about how the People’s Republic of China was increasing its power and America was failing in the world,” he said. “Not anymore.”