AND IT IS OVER:  The president's State of the Union speech is over.  They sounded the all-clear in my neighborhood a couple of hours ago.  People came out of their soundproofed shelters, and all is normal again.  No Chinese balloons flew over in salute.

The speech was a routine SOTU.  No surprises, no strokes of genius.  It was the standard list of claimed accomplishments in the age of Biden, and a longer wish list designed to rally the Democratic Party base.

The analyzers were heavy with seriousness, but I thought the best comments, by far, were made by Fox's Brit Hume.   He divided his response to the speech into two categories – the substance and the delivery, and devoted almost all of his analysis to the delivery.  He wondered whether Americans, hearing and seeing the president's performance, would have enough confidence in him to give him a second term.  Hume concluded that they would not, and I agree.  The president looked and sounded as he is, an old man, impaired, and well past his vigorous years.  He slurred, he stammered, he seemed at times confused, and he rambled aimlessly. 

In addition, Mr. Biden's choice of priorities was odd, although probably acceptable to the woke wing of his party.  He barely mentioned the most important story of the last week, the incursion into our airspace of a Chinese vehicle presumably equipped with surveillance equipment.  The American people deserved a full discussion of the event, with the latest information on the probable intent of the incursion.  We got nothing.  Mr. Biden let us down.

Sitting behind the president was Vice President Harris, who sometimes seemed to slump down in her chair.  She was mostly expressionless, except for the required periods of polite applause.  In a strange way, she was the person who wasn't there, or shouldn't have been.  I did not notice her receiving any particularly notable reception from those in the hall.

An unimportant evening.

February 7, 2023