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Did Biden pass or fail? Former presidential speechwriters

grade the State of the Union address
Democrats and Republicans disagree on whether the president's address was too political
By Paul Steinhauser Andrew Murray
, Fox News

Published March 8, 2024 4:07am EST

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Biden brought 'a lot of vigor, a lot of energy': Harold Ford Jr.
'The Five' co-host Harold Ford Jr. shares his thoughts on President Biden's State of the Union address.

Saddled with negative approval ratings and trailing former President Trump in the latest
polling average of their general election rematch, President Biden went for the jugular in
prime time Thursday evening as he delivered the State of the Union address with eight
months to go until the November showdown.

Biden early and often took aim at Trump, whom he only referred to as "his predecessor,"
and also fired numerous salvos at Republican lawmakers sitting directly in front of him as
the president delivered his address to a joint session of Congress.

"My predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you
want,’" Biden charged three minutes into his speech. It was the first of thirteen references
to Trump, who this week became the GOP's presumptive nominee.

While Democrats applauded the tone and tenor of the president's address, Republicans
savaged the speech for crossing the line.

BIDEN TARGETS TRUMP AND CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS IN STATE OF THE UNION

ADDRESS

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Thursday, March
7, 2024, in Washington. Standing at left is Vice President Kamala Harris and seated at right is House Speaker Mike
Johnson, R-La. (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP) (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)

"This was the most partisan State of the Union I’ve heard in my lifetime," said Bill McGurn,
who served as chief speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush.

"No outreach to Republicans, and the clear message was this: the era of big government is
back, with a vengeance," added McGurn, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member and
columnist as well as a Fox News contributor.

FOX EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP REACTS TO BIDEN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Marc Theissen, who also served as a speechwriter for Bush, argued Biden's speech was
an "utter disgrace."

"Attacking his opponent directly in the first minutes of his speech is unprecedented and
perhaps the most partisan start to a State of the Union address in modern memory,"
Theissen emphasized in a social media posting.

Itwas a very different take from Dan Cluchey, who served as a speechwriter for the
president in the Biden White House.

"With energy and vigor, the President laid out the clear choice facing America — a choice
between two starkly different visions for our future. Will we expand freedom, or restrict it?
Will we defend democracy, or attack it? Will we continue to grow the economy for all, or
rig it on behalf of billionaires and the wealthiest corporations? President Biden made it
crystal clear where he stands — and he did it while commanding the room with equal parts
sharp oratory, disarming banter, and matter-of-fact moral authority," Cluchey told Fox
News.

And Cluchey argued that "State of the Union addresses don't get better than this."

President Joe Biden speaks during a State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday,
March 7, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Longtime Democratic consultant Maria Cardona told Fox News "the contrast with Trump
was brilliant and scathing. He pulled no punches, told the truth, and he was everything he
needed to be."

"Of course, Republicans thought it was too political. If that’s their only criticism, they know
he had a homer, and they have nowhere else to go," added Cardona, a Democratic National
Committee member and veteran of multiple presidential campaigns.

Cardona argued that the president "was energetic, direct, funny, eloquent, and he laid out
his accomplishments clearly and relevantly, connecting them with peoples’ lives."

McGurn agreed that the 81-year-old Biden "was vigorous, more than we’ve recently seen."

But he added that the address "had a get-off-my-lawn-you-rotten-kids! quality to it."

And Clark Judge, who served as a speechwriter for the late President Ronald Reagan,
concurred that Biden's address "sounded angry. For its force, it depended upon him
basically shouting and projecting outrage."

And he charged that the speech was "a laundry list of bad solutions for the problems he
[Biden] caused."

Biden used a portion of his address to spotlight the economic rebound during his tenure in
the White House.

"Iinherited an economy that was on the brink," Biden noted before touting "now our
economy is the envy of the world."

And he spotlighted that "wages keep going up and inflation keeps coming down!"

But poll after poll indicates that Americans aren't giving the president much credit for the
easing in inflation.

And Biden went on offense against Trump and congressional Republicans on another
issue where he's politically vulnerable, the crisis at the nation's southern border.

But Colin Reed, a veteran Republican strategist, said that when it came to the economy
and the border, "both were buried deep within the confines of the speech."

"On the two most important issues, he whiffed big time," said Reed, a campaign veteran
who served as a top adviser this cycle on a super PAC supporting former New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie's 2024 GOP nomination bid.

Biden is the oldest president in the nation's history. And polls indicate a majority of
Americans harbor serious questions about his physical and mental ability to handle
another four years in the White House.

"Iknow I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. And when you get to my
age, certain things become clearer than ever before," Biden quipped near the end of his
address.

Seasoned Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer acknowledged that the
president "can’t stick his head in the sand and pretend voters don’t know he’s old, and this
was the first time he took on his age directly. It was smart to do so, and I think he’ll refine
this more and more over the course of the campaign."

And Moyer, who's served on multiple Democratic presidential campaigns, noted that "this
was more campaign speech and less State of the Union address." But he argued that
Biden "did what he needed to do, showing a fighting spirit and hitting many of the
expected notes on popular issues."

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and
more at our Fox News Digital election hub .

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

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