It’s not what Biden said at the State of the Union that matters. It’s how he said it

As the nation’s political elite filed into the United States House of Representatives for this year’s State of the Union address, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn’t expecting much from President Joe Biden. “I would love to take bets and hear from doctors on what kind of medical cocktail they’re giving him to be able to do this tonight,” Ms Greene, a Republican and staunch ally to former president Donald Trump, told The Independent as she entered the House.

Ms Greene had plenty of reason to make such a snide remark. Polling has consistently shown that most voters have serious doubts about whether Mr Biden, who turns 82 in November, could actually be up to the job of president.

(Those voters have the same concerns, however, about Mr Trump, according to the polls.)

Polling has also consistently shown the president trailing Ms Greene’s political benefactor, Mr Trump. A report from special counsel Robert Hur about Mr Biden’s handling of classified documents mentioned the president’s age and portrayed him as a senile man who could not remember the date of his eldest son Beau’s death.

But there were no signs of Grandpa Joe during his State of the Union on Thursday evening. Rather, Mr Biden chose to confront anxieties about his age head-on and showed a side of himself that many political observers –including in his own party – thought had faded in his advanced years.

“Let me close with this: I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” Mr Biden told the nation. “And when you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever before. I know the American story. Again and again, I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation.”

And he started by playing a good old-fashioned game of rope-a-dope and turning Ms Greene into his most effective foil.

As he arrived in the House chamber, Ms Greene positioned herself in the aisle adorned in a “Make America Great Again” hat. Her shirt read, “Say Her Name” in reference to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old woman killed in Georgia. Police have arrested a man who came to the United States illegally from Venezuela. As he entered the chamber, Ms Greene pestered the president to “say her name, Mr President” and handed him a badge in Riley’s memory.

Rather than ignore it, Mr Biden flipped it back on her and when Ms Greene again mentioned Riley, he held up the badge she had handed him and mentioned her name – although he incorrectly called her “Lincoln” Riley – then blasted Republicans for killing a bipartisan agreement negotiated in the Senate. He also acknowledged Riley’s parents, mentioning the loss of two of his children before again attacking Republicans for refusing to negotiate in good faith on immigration.

Mr Biden delivered some of his fieriest lines while also acknowledging his curious predicament – when he won his first Senate race in 1972, he was too young to be sworn in, now 52 years later, he is the oldest person to occupy the presidency – without dancing around it and used it to frame a contrast with Mr Trump.

“The issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old our ideas are,” Mr Biden said. “Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be.”

Indeed, Mr Biden treated this speech as his opening pitch to the American people now that the presidential primaries are over and Americans gear up for a 2020 rematch. While conducted in a government setting, Mr Biden treated the joint address to Congress as a campaign rally, replete with Democrats chanting “four more years” throughout his address and at various points, apparently energising everyone in his party from the retiring West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to the progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Throughout the address, Mr Biden regularly engaged in a shadow-boxing match against Mr Trump, mentioning him as “my predecessor”, railing against his desire to “bury the truth” about the insurrection that had taken place in the very building where he spoke. Of course, Speaker Mike Johnson, who stood behind him throughout the night, has released more footage of the riot in a way to appease the far-right of his conference and diminish the gravity of that day.

Mr Biden also thundered against Mr Trump’s invocation of patriotism – in recent months, he has opened his rally with a version of the national anthem sung by January 6 inmates – by saying “you can’t love your country only when you win”.

Similarly, Mr Biden delivered some of his most aggressive populist pitches attacking the wealthy for everything from not paying enough in taxes to reducing the amount of chips in snack food bags while touting his support for American labour and shouting out United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, who was in the audience and whose union endorsed Mr Biden after he stood in its picket line. It was the vintage “Union Joe” who talked about working-class issues in 2012. One person who knows that version of Mr Biden’s salience? Senator Mitt Romney, whom Mr Biden and Barack Obama beat that year, and who watched the address astutely.

In addition, Mr Biden made sure to focus on protecting reproductive rights – though, as he has done in the past, he avoided saying the actual word “abortion” – but, with many Democratic congresswomen dressed in white as a tribute to women’s suffrage, he did say “clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v Wade have no clue about the power of women in America”, before adding, “but they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again in 2024”. Unsurprisingly, Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the Dobbs v Jackson decision that killed Roe did not attend, nor did arch-conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.

But Mr Biden did have some reminders of the troubles he faces. Democratic representatives Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Cori Bush of Missouri and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, wore keffiyehs in a sign of solidarity with more than 30,000 Palestinians who have lost their lives amid Israel’s bombing of Gaza. When Mr Biden mentioned Gaza and the plight of Palestinians, Ms Tlaib remained seated and held up a sign reading: “Stop sending bombs.”

Indeed, before the address, former senator Patrick Leahy, who co-authored laws that prevent the federal government from using funds to assist foreign governments when there is credible information they have committed “gross violations of human rights”, told The Independent that the United States potentially violated law by sending aid to Israel. Mr Biden will need to somehow placate many young voters as well as people of colour who are unhappy about his support for Israel if he is to defeat Mr Trump again.

Similarly, at one point, someone in the guest gallery yelled “Remember Abbey Gate”, the site at Kabul’s main airport where 13 US service members died during the US evacuation from Afghanistan, which caused Mr Biden’s approval rating to reach a nadir. His approval rating has never truly recovered.

Nonetheless, for Mr Biden, those moments seemed fleeting, and the heckler was quickly removed. Similarly, despite Ms Tlaib’s reputation for being a spoiler, her form of protest was not as boorish as Ms Greene’s.

Democrats seemed to realise Mr Biden nailed his speech and may have begun to assuage some voters’ concerns. After the address, as he worked the room, Representative Jerry Nadler told him, “Nobody’s going to talk about cognitive impairment now.” In classic Biden form, he retorted: “I kind of wish sometimes I was cognitively impaired.”

Regardless, he seemed to have done his job. Mr Biden – who notably does not smoke or drink – may not be on a magic mix of drugs. But if he’s swapped out his preferred chocolate ice cream for something with more caffeine in it, it seems to be working.