Speaker Mike Johnson tees up Joe Biden

Biden's State of the Union speech kicked off the general election campaign

The Speaker of the House is responsible for setting the date of the State of the Union address and inviting the president to the House Chamber to deliver it. When Mike Johnson decided on March 7, a date later than most years, he inadvertently set up Joe Biden to deliver a speech kicking off his re-election effort and framing the debate in the presidential campaign. The timing couldn’t have been worse for Republicans and Biden’s delivery couldn’t have been better for Democrats.

While the nominees for president have been known for a while, Donald Trump still faced an irritant in Nikki Haley in primaries. Biden’s been challenged more by discussions of his age and mental state than his primary opponent Dean Phillips, but full general election mode still seemed somewhere in the future. On Wednesday, all that changed. In the wake of Super Tuesday defeats, Haley and Phillips both dropped out. Biden and Trump became the only two standing, officially setting the stage for November.

The buzz around the State of the Union address focused on Biden’s ability to deliver the speech. Republicans have been mocking him as senile and decrepit. Many Democrats have been nervously and half-heartedly defending him while some people have been calling for him to drop out altogether. The annual address to the American people felt like a make-or-break event for the president.

Biden’s entrance into the Capitol was tense. Democrats were worried he would stumble or shuffle toward the podium. Republicans were giddy, sure the event would highlight his infirmities.

Instead, Biden entered the Chamber confident and in good humor. He shook hands and took selfies with Members of Congress. He feigned shock when Marjorie Taylor Greene showed up in a MAGA hat and tee shirt with “Say Her Name,” referring to Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student killed by an undocumented immigrant. By the time he arrived on the podium, he looked relaxed and confident, not old and confused.

He almost immediately laid into Republicans for shirking their responsibility to protect Europe by opposing aid to Ukraine. He blasted Trump for bowing to Putin. He welcomed Sweden into NATO and reminded the country that the alliance was the most powerful and successful in history. He chastised House Republicans for failing to pass the bipartisan border security bill and criticized them for wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare. He warned Republicans and the Supreme Court that women would make them pay for attempts to ban abortion and he bantered with heckling GOP House members throughout the speech, getting the better of them every time.

Most importantly, though, Biden used the speech to set the terms of the debate going forward. He painted a hopeful and optimistic picture of a country emerging from a pandemic, leading the world with the strongest economy and building alliances in Europe and Asia to protect democracy and free markets. He called the strong recovery the “greatest story never told.” He contrasted his positive vision with Trump’s dystopian view of the world where the immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and cities are descending into bastions of crime. He offered Americans a clear choice as the general election campaign begins in earnest.

Judging from the response of Republicans, Biden scored big. As Bulwark publisher and Never-Trump Republican Sarah Longwell tweeted, “You can tell how well Biden did tonight by how annoyed Republicans on here are right now.” The GOP lowered the bar for Biden and he slapped them hard as he sailed over it.

Mike Johnson’s timing of the State of the Union was a gift for Biden. As the two major party candidates secured their nominations, the speech gave the president a platform to prove his fitness for office and to offer a contrast between his optimistic vision for the country and the divisive rhetoric of the GOP. He likely changed the narrative of the campaign, at least in the short run. He did as much with the speech as possible and Democrats up and down the ballot will benefit.

The Biden campaign should unleash the happy warrior and let him campaign across the nation, gaffes and all. The State of the Union address showed that he’s up the task and he can be an asset, not a liability. Let the race begin.