By Ray Cardello for February 7, 2023 Season 16 / Post 10

It is said that the State of the Union speech is the most difficult to craft for Presidential speech writers. The 2023 version may be the most challenging task ever for these scribes. The address must be upbeat, highlighting the President’s accomplishments and goals while sounding realistic to the American people. For an Administration that has a tremendous problem with facts and reality, you can see the difficulty for the writers.

Coming off a week where Americans watched the Chinese government violate our sovereignty and fly an airship over some of our most sensitive military bases. At the same time, the Pentagon and President did not act until the balloon exited our airspace, which did not work in the President’s favor. The polls show American frustration, with 61% dissatisfied with the job of President Joe Biden. Pretty tough for Joe to brag about his performance when six in ten do not agree…Perception Versus Reality.

Nobody knows what Biden will key on, but the consensus is that he will key on the Economy, Job Numbers, Unemployment, Police Reform, Debt Limit, and our support for Ukraine. He will have a difficult time gaining support with his performance in each of these categories. The unspoken speaks louder to Americans as Afghanistan, Fuel & Energy Costs, Hunter Biden & The Biden Cartel, Inflation, the Classified Documents Scandal, Border Security, Fentanyl, our failing Education system, and out-of-control crime will not get airtime on Tuesday evening. Many of these impact Americans daily, and we want to know what Joe Biden plans to do to correct these issues. Chances are good we will hear nothing tomorrow evening.

Biden promised in his inaugural speech that he would be a unifier. He promised to be a President for every American. In appearances over the last few days, including two that he shared with Vice President Harris, he gave us a preview into his head as he approaches the State of the Union. He took all of the credit for what is going right, while pointing a finger at Republicans and radical MAGA followers for all that is going south.

Pete Buttigieg appeared on three different Sunday talk shows and clearly pointed out a flaw of the Administration. He was asked about the poll showing 62% of Americans would be angry if Biden is reelected. His answers were consistent and extolled how successful he feels this President has been. The question was about the feelings of Americans, and he answered with how great the Administration feels about their boss. That is a study in disconnect.

The address tomorrow will be a partisan event, as is the case with every State of the Union, but there will be some differences in the 2023 edition. The divisiveness is at a fever pitch which will lead to the reaction in the Chamber. For the first time since 2011, Nancy Pelosi will not be sitting behind the President. That is huge and shows a change in leadership that we can only hope continues in 2024. You can be confident you will not see Speaker McCarthy disrespect his office by tearing up Joe Biden’s speech. He is working on us tearing up this Administration in 2024.