Four lessons from the State of the Union

President Biden delivered an energetic and passionate speech that was as much a campaign kickoff as a State of the Union address, using what is expected to be one of his largest audiences of the year to make a powerful case that he was fit enough for the next one. four years.

Mr. Biden is rarely called a bold orator. But he arrived on Capitol Hill Thursday with the benefit of mercifully low expectations after relentless Republican attacks on his mental and physical fitness.

This was not a typical State of the Union. The speeches are often a laundry list of achievements and an equally long string of promises. Instead, this was Mr. Biden portraying the year, just as his White House and Wilmington advisers want, as a stark choice between two candidates.

He opened with Donald Trump. He concluded with Mr. Trump. And in between, he taunted and teased Republican lawmakers in the House who protested and mocked, easily taking the bait — and even one person’s pin — to score political points of his own.

Here are four lessons from Biden’s fiery election-year State of the Union:

A spirited speech aimed at combating the idea that Biden is too old.

Biden entered Thursday’s speech determined to use the high-profile moment to rebut accusations that he is too old for a second term.

He made snappy comments while almost shouting in an attempt to show energy and vitality. He sparred with Republicans in the House several times, deviating from his prepared remarks and ad-libbing his answers. And as he neared the end of his speech, the president joked about his age.

“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around for a while,” the 81-year-old commander-in-chief said, chuckling in the audience. “And when you get to my age, certain things become clearer than ever.”

If his primary mission was to avoid a blunder that would raise concerns about his age, as expressed by broad majorities in both parties in multiple polls, he has succeeded in that mission. But despite a performance that was more energetic than he often delivers, it was unlikely to allay concerns, especially from Republicans, who have made questioning Biden’s competence a centerpiece of their 2024 strategy.

The morning of the State of Union began with an ad from Mr. Trump’s super PAC asking whether Mr. Biden would make it to 2029. By evening, Donald Trump Jr. said on social media that Mr. Biden “looked like a reanimated corpse.”

Biden repeatedly leaned on one phrase in particular: “my predecessor.”

Mr. Biden may not have mentioned Mr. Trump by name, but he left little doubt about who he was speaking to — and who he was running against.

The president outlined sharply differing visions of America — its government and its role in the world — with “my predecessor,” a phrase he first used less than five minutes into his speech.

He used it again and again. He cited Mr. Trump’s comments encouraging President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to do “whatever you want” in Europe, calling it “outrageous, dangerous” and “unacceptable.”

He talked about how “my predecessor” had tried to rewrite the history of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, how “my predecessor” had failed to take notice when the pandemic hit almost exactly four years ago the country began to rage, how “My predecessor” had done little to fight China and how “my predecessor” had failed to act against gun violence.

The structure of these speeches is very intentional. And all these contrasts with Mr. Trump came before Mr. Biden’s tally of his own achievements, or before he discussed new proposals for the rest of this year or for a second term.

Later — not in his prepared remarks — he spoke directly to Mr. Trump. “As my predecessor is watching,” Mr. Biden said, before urging the former president to join him in backing the failed bipartisan border bill that Mr. Trump helped stop.

The focus was a sign of how political the president’s speech had been — and how central Mr. Trump is to Mr. Biden’s own political future.

He seemed to enjoy a follow-up to last year’s GOP interruptions.

Moments of Biden’s speech were reminiscent of those from a year ago, when he responded to Republican lawmakers’ arguments with quick responses that earned him high marks for being quick on his feet.

He did it again Thursday, sparring with Republicans over tax cuts, immigration and more. Once, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, shouted during the speech that Mr. Biden’s son should pay his taxes.

At one point, Mr. Biden held up a pin that Ms. Greene had distributed ahead of the speech calling on him to say the name of the nurse in Georgia who was killed. A Venezuelan migrant has been charged with murder.

Mr. Biden held up the pin and declared, “An innocent young woman murdered by an illegal,” a term many Democrats have abandoned.

Mr. Biden and his advisers had been preparing — and even longing for — an interaction with Republican lawmakers. They are betting that people are looking for a fighter and someone who still has the energy to engage with his rivals, both politically and globally.

That can be difficult. At some of his press conferences he came across as angry rather than assertive. At other times he seemed too soft-spoken or weak, prompting some of his supporters to wish he would put more effort into becoming more assertive.

On Thursday night, with help from Republicans, he avoided both extremes. He ended the 68-minute speech on an even louder note, drawing Democrats’ customary standing ovation.

This State of the Union address was Mr. Biden’s second since Roe v. Wade was overturned. But he spent far more time on abortion than the 72 words he spent on the subject in 2023. In fact, his prediction that “women’s power” would manifest through abortion by 2024 was the first excerpt the White House had previously released. the speech.

On Thursday, he talked about Democratic victories in 2022 and 2023 since the Supreme Court overturned Roe and made a prediction.

“We will win again in 2024,” he said, because of abortion. It was an explicit political call for armaments in government buildings. The speech itself also served as a map for the key issues Biden is working on, including democracy.

“My God, what freedoms are you going to take away next?” Mr. Biden said.

The centrality of “reproductive freedom,” as Mr. Biden often puts it, was clear not only from his speech but also from the guests in the White House box. They included a Texas woman who had to leave her state to have an abortion to save her own life, and an Alabama woman who had to undergo fertility treatment when the Alabama Supreme Court halted IVF treatments in that state.

The reality for now is that the Democratic agenda is more defensive against potential Republican action on abortion. There is little the president can do for abortion rights, which is why his promise to “restore” Roe v. Wade was so carefully crafted that he would do so “if” voters also elect a Congress that could do such legislation approve. .