Every year, the American president in place must go through this great oral. Joe Biden returns to Congress this Tuesday to convince a disillusioned America that he is the architect of its renewed prosperity and the guarantor of its future success during the “State of the Union speech” or “State of the Union Address”. This is a long annual address in which, for decades, each American president describes his record and outlines his plans for Congress in January or February.
This year, Joe Biden, who plans to run again in 2024, is delivering a high-stakes policy speech. This great ritual of American political life, with its share of solemn declarations, ovations in the spans of the presidential party and dismayed faces in the opposing camp, obviously takes on particular importance when a president, the oldest in American history, who plans to run for a second term.
Sluggish popularity despite good results
At 80, Joe Biden will have a lot to do to convince his compatriots that he is their best option, now and potentially for the presidency of 2024, facing a Donald Trump who has already gone to the campaign. Before a Congress in which one of the chambers, that of the representatives, is now in the hands of the Republican opposition, the “main message [sera] that we still have to make progress, but people have to feel optimistic,” Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, said Monday.
The Democratic president has the figures for him: robust growth, low unemployment, creations of companies in shambles and inflation which is calming down after having hit households hard. But the statistics don’t tell the tale. Despite the huge investments and reforms voted on by Joe Biden, 62% of Americans believe that their president has “not done much” or “almost nothing” since January 2021, according to a poll washington post/ABC. The Democratic camp itself shows no enthusiasm for a new campaign by its octogenarian boss. The same poll reveals that 38% of Democratic voters want another candidacy.
Joe Biden, this moderate who is not very good at oratorical flights, has so far not allowed himself to be affected by the slump and continues to repeat, in all tones, that he has “never been so optimistic” for the first world power. , and this despite the mounting international perils.