Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
President Joe Biden is expected to soon announce he’s running for reelection, and he’s got his campaign slogan: Finish the Job. In his 73-minute State of the Union speech, he repeated the phrase multiple times as he made the case for what he’s done, and what he intends to do for the next two, or four years.
He spoke with a verve and a vigor that the public rarely gets to see. Energized by the familiar setting and cognizant of the challenge he faces in persuading a skeptical public to set aside their pessimism, he brought his A-game as he took the stage with a Republican Speaker behind him and a divided Congress before him.
By any objective measure, he has gotten more done in two years than any president since FDR. Can he credibly take credit for those accomplishments—from blockbuster job creation to staying cool in confronting China and steering NATO in a proxy war against Russia—and reset the expectations for himself as he likely seeks a second term?