Reviews have rolled in for President Joe Biden’s latest State of the Union address, with many of them focusing on a highlight of the evening: the moment the president got Republicans to cheer for Social Security and Medicare. It was a neat trick. I still don’t trust the right to protect these critically important programs — but at least their hypocrisy will be on video if they don’t.
It was a high point in a speech that covered a lot of ground, as State of the Union addresses always do. I feel for Biden; I’ve had a similar experience on a smaller scale. As mayor of a city, I used to give a state of the city address every year. It always ended up as a laundry list, and my team and I used to wish we could just spend the whole hour on one pressing issue.
