Biden's State Of the Union Address

So I understand President Biden gave his first State Of the Union address last week . . . 

First of all, I'm glad it was only an hour long.  Secondly, I think he did a pretty good job, and the sight of maybe only three out of five hundred or so people wearing face coverings in the U.S. House chamber right after the mandate for wearing them in the House was lifted was reassuring.

Although I think Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene should have been required to be gagged.

I won't even repeat what they said.

President Biden made his intentions on handling the war in Ukraine clear, promising to stand behind Ukrainian sovereignty and defend freedom - certifying himself as a wartime President in a war we're not even fighting.  He also struck an even balance between liberal and centrist concerns regarding domestic issues by advocating for the more popular elements of his Build Back Better plan (a term he didn't actually use in the speech), including a $15 minimum wage, a child tax credit extension, making child care costs affordable and a call to defend, not defund, the police.

All of this even gave the President a bounce in the polls when he badly needed it.  In the first and so far only poll taken after the State Of the Union address, from Marist College and public broadcasting, his approval rating is up to 47 percent. Broken down, Biden's handling of the Ukraine crisis is up 18 points, to 52 percent,  his handling of the COVID pandemic is up 8 points, to 55 percent, and even though his handling of the economy is still under water, it's up 8 points, to 45 percent.  

All in all, he still has a good deal of work to do to put himself and the Democrats in a comfortable situation before the November midterms, but the State Of the Union address was a step in the right direction.