SOTU 2023: Angry Old Man Screaming

This speech is insane. He’s shouting and angry. Talking so fast you can barely understand him. Whatever Biden took is going to keep him up all night. #sotu2023

— kerry dougherty (@kerrydougherty) February 8, 2023

Torture.

That’s how I see the annual State of the Union address. No matter which president is doing the addressing, the speech is always awful.

Last night’s was no exception.

On our radio show Tuesday morning Mike Imprevento and I drew imaginary straws for who would watch it. I got the short one. He got to watch Sarah Sanders deliver the Republican rebuttal.

I got the SOTU.

I know what you’re thinking. Kerry loathes Biden, no wonder she doesn't want to watch.

Nope, I dread this idiotic speech EVERY year.

The insane clapping. The lies. The juvenile antics, like Dem women in their matching white dresses. Or Nancy Pelosi tearing up Donald Trump’s speech.

Fortunately, Speaker Kevin McCarthy last night showed the maturity and respect that his mean-girl predecessor never did. Best of all, we didn’t have to watch Pelosi trying to get her botoxed eyebrows under control through the endless oration.

Biden’s speech was, well, predictably unhinged. One minute he was calling for unity and yammering about his “Republican friends.” The next he was shouting and angry. He talked way too fast. At times he mumbled. Almost as if his docs had shot him up with too many amphetamines.

Needless to say, this is the last time they let Hunter give his dad meds before a speech.

— Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla) February 8, 2023

January 21, 2015, day after President Barack Obama’s SOTU address, I wrote this in The Virginian-Pilot:

I don't like watching the State of the Union speech for the same reason I avoid Broadway musicals: No matter who's in the limelight, the performance tends to be cliched, formulaic and annoying.

This annual congressional kabuki theater involves way too much of the half-of-the-chamber-applauds-wildly-and-leaps-to-its-feet-while-the-other-half-scowls moments. Who has the patience for this sort of posturing?

And don't get me started on the predictable look-who's-sitting-beside-the-first-lady interludes.

There's a nickname for those human props: They're called "Skutniks."

Skutnik, in case you've forgotten, was the young federal employee who dove into the icy Potomac River on Jan. 13, 1982, to rescue one of the survivors of Air Florida Flight 90 that had crashed into the 14th Street Bridge. Seventy-four passengers and crew members perished. Only five survived. Skutnik was able to save the life of a woman who was too cold and weak to hold onto a helicopter life ring.

Seems every president since has felt compelled to channel his inner Ronald Reagan by plucking ordinary Americans, plopping them into the VIP box and using their life stories to bolster support for various pet presidential programs.

The parents of Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death by five Memphis cops, were among Biden’s Skutniks. He used them to call for police reform.

The moment they were introduced was compelling. But the rest of the speech? A forgettable mashup of caterwauling and lies.

The biggest reaction of the night was to Biden’s most bodacious fabrication: that Republicans want to end - “sunset,” he said - Social Security and Medicare.

Republicans in the chamber heckled, booed loudly and called him a “liar.” It was rude but they couldn’t let that stand. It’s boilerplate Democratic fear-mongering. They trot this out every four years, when they aren’t telling people that the GOP wants to “put y’all back in chains.” This was a sign that Biden really is about to announce another run for president.

That will be good news for those who like to watch angry old coots on speed.