This version of Joe Biden could beat Donald Trump.
At the State of the Union address on Thursday night, the 81-year-old president set out to defuse his biggest liability: deep-seated fears among millions of Americans that he’s too old to serve a second term.
There is nothing worse for a president than looking weak. So every word, gesture, joke and admonition of Biden’s appearance was geared toward the goal of making him look strong.
And in the most important moment of the 2024 election campaign so far, Biden appeared to succeed. He projected vigor and forcefulness. His voice, which has seemed reedy at times, was sonorant. He was quick off the mark as he goaded heckling Republicans, who again walked into his trap by showcasing their extremism to millions of viewers. Biden was a trenchant master of the chamber of the House of Representatives, effectively wielding the theatrics of the presidency and commanding an hour of unfiltered primetime television.
At times, Biden reanimated the scrappy, twinkle-eyed, blue-collar street politician that has characterized his public image for decades — for instance, when he used the word “illegal” instead of the more politically correct term “undocumented migrant.”
Taking aim at another of his own weaknesses — over the border crisis — Biden attacked the GOP for sabotaging a bipartisan border bill that contained many of the policies that Republicans had been advocating for years, apparently because Trump wanted to deprive him of an election year win. The president pointed out that many Republicans had originally supported the measure, and he mockingly reacted to their boos by saying: “You don’t think so — you don’t like that bill, huh?”
Not for the first time in the speech, Biden appeared to be speaking directly to…
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