Why Biden’s SOTU Worked.

Simple principles, simply applied.

At left, the three people in line of succession as Commander in Chief. At right, members of the House majority during a presidential address. Joe Biden is betting that the first image is more appealing than the second. (Getty Images.)

Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last night was effective—for him, for his policies, for his party, and I think for the country.

Here’s why. I’ll start with the usual rules for this special kind of rhetoric, then move to an annotation of the speech as a whole. For the record, I’ve read every State of the Union (SOTU) address that was ever delivered, and have helped write two of them myself. The general principles are these: