Strassel Wonders If SOU Shows Mod Or Mad Biden?

WSJ’s Kim Strassel says “The Ukraine War Is Biden’s Time for Choosing” to come clean in his State of Union Speech & take “moderate” stances as once promised on not only defense, but energy, health care & other social issues.

Ms. Strassel is blunt in laying down the challenge: “President Biden will step into the House … to deliver his first State of the Union address … [and] … THAT’s when America will find out how he has chosen to address the defining moment of his presidency … There will be time aplenty to plumb the West’s misjudgment & mishandling of Vladimir Putin up to now. But the failure can bluntly be summed up as a lack of seriousness. Mr. Putin spent years offering bloody proof of his intent to expand “Mother Russia”. The US & Western Europe tsk-tsked, then, returned to slashing military budgets, debating new welfare handouts & handing their energy security over to Russia for the cause of ‘decarbonization.’” Meanwhile, Putin amassed his armies on the Ukraine border “while the US debated mask mandates & personal pronouns.”

As Ms. Strassel sees it, THIS is Mr. Biden’s “moment for leadership, not [more] diplomatic round robins.” It’s perhaps his last chance to recalibrate a measured sanctions approach to reigning in Putin well as his unrealistic War on Fossil Fuels that needlessly punted away America’s energy independence. It’s also, says the columnist, Biden’s opportunity to “reset” his domestic standing by finally refusing to pander to a “crazy minority” of radical progressives in Congress & signaling a return to the “I’m a moderate” on social issues. Strassel wonders: “Will it be an emboldened, reset Biden presidency? Or more progressive puerility, as per usual?”

Davd Soul