President Biden last night delivered the most depressing presidential speech in my lifetime.
Former President Jimmy Carter’s infamous “malaise” speech was positively uplifting by comparison.
President Biden did look a little more lively last night, though I would stop far short of saying there was a spring in his step as he tottered to the lectern.
Andrea Widburg of the American Thinker found the President’s address “scary, boring and bizarre.”
The speech was also divisive and ungrateful.
President Biden was breathtakingly ungracious, repeatedly denigrating the unnamed “previous administration,” while taking full credit for the vaccine it made possible in record speed. What would it have cost to give a nod to Warp Speed?
Here is how Mr. Biden thanked Mr. Trump for the vaccine:
Good evening my fellow Americans. Tonight, I’d like to talk to you about where we are as we mark one year since everything stopped because of this pandemic. A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked, denials for days, weeks, then months.
A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked, denials for days, weeks, then months.
That led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, and more loneliness. Photos and videos from 2019 feel like they were taken in another era. The last vacation, the last birthday with friends, the last holiday with extended family.
While it was different for everyone, we all lost something — a collective suffering, a collective sacrifice, a year filled with the loss of life and the loss of living for all of us. But in the loss, we saw how much there was to gain in appreciation, respect, and gratitude. Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do.
Finding light in darkness may be a very American thing to do, but last night President Biden found only darkness and more darkness. He ran on having “a plan” to end the unnamed pandemic, but last night he didn’t seem to have any ideas beyond what the “previous administration” already had begun.
A peculiar feature of the speech is that President Biden repeatedly told us that he was going to tell us the truth. When you are lying, the old trick is to say that you are telling the truth…over and over again. President Biden said that the Trump administration had denied the crisis, though former President Trump instituted live-saving travel restrictions immediately and sped up production and protective wear, ventilators. The vaccine was the crowning achievement.
President Biden could also have given more credit to all the work millions of brave and dedicated people did against covid that was successful before he came into office (health care workers, social workers, scientists, distributors, essential workers and on and one).
President Biden announced he has ordered more vaccines, and he said this as if the unnamed previous administration were remiss for leaving something for President Biden to do. He also reiterated that we can’t let our guard down, holding up his macabre black mask to set an example.
Nevertheless, President Biden didn’t seem to be much cheered by the potential ending of the crisis, which he places at July 4, when we might (might!) have small gatherings outdoors, if we are good boys and girls.
If we are not good boys and girls, the President warned that we could face consequences. He hinted at further lockdowns. We must await further orders from the government:
“Fourth, in the coming weeks, we will issue further guidance on what you can and cannot do once fully vaccinated to lessen the confusion, to keep people safe, and encourage more people to get vaccinated.”
Unlike members of the legacy media (“Joe Biden Seemed to Channel Fireside Chat;” or “Empathy, Intimacy, and Promise of Better Days Ahead a Winning Combination in Biden Speech”), left depressed and worried about future government restrictions on our freedom.
The speech was at least short (20-plus minutes) and the President had begun to flag towards the end.