“It was very much an election speech. Biden is expected to announce within two months that he will seek a second term between the ages of 82 and 86. In his speech, Biden underlined the positive developments related to the growth of employment and the decline in inflation. At the same time, Petersen sees enthusiasm among American viewers for the State of the Union waning.
Americans are starting to find this majestic speech a little unhappy, plus Biden isn’t the first to be so positive as a president. The number of television viewers has dropped from sixty million to thirty million in the last twenty years. It is becoming a politically colored ritual in which American interest is waning.”
Liar
Not only has the State of the Union become a bare moment of campaigning, the majestic has also been lost. Petersen thinks it looks more like a fish market. For example, Biden was loudly called a “liar” by far-right Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene when she claimed that Republicans want to abolish welfare benefits. China and Ukraine have hardly been discussed, but Biden stressed that support will continue.
According to Petersen, Democrats and Republicans must reach an agreement and both sides must compromise. “Republicans have a responsibility in the House of Representatives, so they’re also going to have to go to voters with the message that they got things done. You’ll have to agree.’
Ceiling
What matters in the short term, Petersen says, is whether Americans should be allowed to raise the ceiling on borrowed money to run government and finance programs passed by Congress. The Republicans want to place conditions on this, Biden is uncompromising in this regard.
‘That’s also something he’s more or less said in the State of the Union, but even there a compromise will have to be found because neither side wants to be held accountable for a government shutdown. There the Republicans will have to do everything to get concessions from Biden and vice versa. It’s getting exciting.’
Surveys
Will the State of the Union affect the polls? ‘You see employment growth, but that is also due to the huge spike in unemployment under corona, which is recovering. Biden claims it as something of a “magic trick of the job.” Inflation is coming down, but it was very high and still not at the level it was a few years ago. This is what Americans experience in their daily existence at the supermarket and at the gas station: that it hasn’t been normalized yet.’