He also pledged a “crackdown on these companies overcharging American businesses and consumers”. And instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let’s make it in America,” he said, to boisterous chants of “ USA!” from Democrats. More jobs where you can earn a good living in America.

“More goods moving faster and cheaper in America. The president’s proposed solution to the problem of inflation was autarky and populism. Mr Biden unveiled no major new pieces of domestic policy. The recommendation that Congress reconsider already proposed legislation that stands no chance of passage, such as a pro-unionisation bill and Democrats’ preferred antidote to voter suppression, will prove to be lifeless. Once central, climate change was relegated to occasional mentions. The president was reduced to suggesting that components of this sweeping legislation could still pass, in an uninspiringly half-hearted manner. Mr Biden seems to have lost faith in his ability to legislate-not daring to mention even once the name Build Back Better. The answers to America’s domestic ailments were unsatisfying.

Unfortunately for Mr Biden, his effort on March 1st was neither. It is hard to imagine any speech capable of overcoming these realities, not to mention difficulties of partisan animus and gridlock, no matter how well-crafted or excellently delivered. “On the other hand, any powers of the president to influence the congressional agenda disappear completely when presidents lose their popular lustre,” they write. A careful study by a trio of political scientists-John Lovett, Shaun Bevan and Frank Baumgartner-found that popular presidents can successfully use the occasion to hector Congress into examining their agenda.

The recitation of the president’s wish-list, which these speeches routinely descend into, has only an indirect relationship with actual policy. Examine the swing in presidential-approval ratings taken by Gallup, a polling outfit, before and after the spectacles over the past four decades, and you will find an average change of zero points. The importance of the state-of-the-union address is questionable, despite all the attention it gets. That makes him precisely as unpopular as Donald Trump had become at this point in his presidency. Mr Biden’s net approval rating is minus 11 percentage points. Voters are unimpressed, and ready to punish his Democratic Party in the mid-term elections to be held in November.

Biden speech central time