This Wasn’t the Restart Biden Needed


Published March 2, 2022

The Washington Post

State of the Union addresses tend to be unmemorable, providing little boost to a president’s political standing. There was some hope, maybe an expectation, that President Biden’s address on Tuesday night might be different, what with the war in Ukraine and his abysmal job approval numbers. That, sadly for Biden and perhaps Ukraine, was not the case.

Let’s start with the politics. Biden’s domestic agenda was nothing more than a rehash of things he has already called for. Now, the Build Back Better bill will be broken into component parts, probably because that’s what polls show does better with voters. But in the end, it adds up to the same legislative package that Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) has already said he won’t support.

Click here to read the rest of this column on the Washington Post website.

Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Photo by Aaron Kittredge from Pexels


Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.

Most Read

EPPC BRIEFLY
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Sign up to receive EPPC's biweekly e-newsletter of selected publications, news, and events.

SEARCH

Your support impacts the debate on critical issues of public policy.

Donate today