The president made the case for why he deserves a second term

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, March 7 night. The speech provided Biden one of his biggest audiences of the year as he made his case for a second term and contrasted his vision of the country’s future with Republicans ahead of what’s expected to be a lengthy general election fight with former President Donald Trump.

Going into the evening, I think many viewers expected to hear something like a campaign speech from Biden, and that’s what he delivered. While he did ask Congress to pass a bipartisan immigration bill and spent time on other policy issues like abortion, housing and foreign policy, it was less a policy laundry list than most State of the Union speeches. He worked to paint himself as a brighter, more forward-thinking choice than Trump, whom he only referred to as “my predecessor.” Biden talked about his history in politics and tackled the issue of his age head on, but the end of his speech was about his hope for the future. By comparison, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s Republican response to the speech was bleak and painted a dark picture of the country, especially at the southern border.

It echoed Trump’s “American carnage” inaugural address, though Britt avoided mentioning the former president by name. That’s a good preview of how the presidential race is likely to unfold: Republicans will paint Biden as a failure who has presided over a U.S. in decline, while Biden will work to focus attention on the progress he feels his administration has made and can continue to make.