President Theodore Roosevelt famously called the U. S. presidency a ‘bully pulpit,” by which he meant a wonderful platform from which to talk to the country and the world about ideas.  Never was that truth more in evidence than last night at President Biden’s first State of the Union address.  He spent the first ten minutes or so talking about the war in Ukraine, coming out strongly in support of that country, NATO, and democracy.  He mentioned sanctioning Russia economically, closing off U. S. airspace to all Russian flights, and assembling a task force to go after the Russian oligarchs and “their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets.”  And he worked hard to paint Putin as an isolated warmonger to which the rest of the world was united in opposition.

Then, President Biden switched to the domestic agenda and the speech became much more typical of a State of the Union address, largely concerned with toting up the administration’s accomplishments to date and asking for legislation to push forward the political plans Mr. Biden still hopes to accomplish.

Perhaps surprising, given America’s recent history of highly partisan speech-making from this particular pulpit, Biden managed to find a fairly broad set of bi-partisan issues to talk about.  The infrastructure bill, the “Made in America” theme, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, a chief prosecutor for pandemic fraud (who’s in favor of fraud?), keeping our children in school – the President covered a wide range of topics that made at least some claim to bi-partisan approval.

He closed the legislative section of the speech by calling for united action on four areas of America life that are particularly fraught:  the opioid crisis, deteriorating mental health indicators, the economic and emotional plight of veterans, and diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Finally, President Biden finished the speech as he began, calling for unity against the invasion of Ukraine, and support for democracy over tyranny.

In terms of delivery, the speech was uneven; strongest at the beginning, and especially the end, where his energy noticeably peaked, his voice got louder and stronger, and he seemed most animated.  At a more conversational level during the middle of the speech, Biden occasionally stumbled over his words, misspoke himself, and got lost in his rhetoric.  But starting and finishing strong are the most important moments of a speech to get right, and President Biden did his best at these points in his address.  Overall, a good effort under very difficult circumstances in a dark hour for the world.

Normally, State of the Union addresses are lists of achievements and legislative wishes.  This version was that rare SOTU that had a more important purpose: to give clarity to the American people and the world, and hope to the people of the Ukraine.  We only will come to know how well the speech worked as a bully pulpit in the coming weeks.  Once again, events will overtake the best efforts of a president to control the narrative and shape the future.  The final word on this SOTU and this President will be the judgment of history.