10 Things I Loved About Joe Biden’s Oval Office Address

President Joe Biden’s Wednesday night Oval Office address has been widely panned on the right (and much ballyhooed on the left). After nearly a week of no visible sign of the president and coming on the heels of his COVID diagnosis and rather odd Sunday Twitter announcement of his bowing out of the 2024 presidential race, his remarks were highly anticipated — from multiple perspectives.  

Here at RedState, we had a spirited liveblog of the event and, yes, spent much of it snarking at the production (and the, uh, substance of Biden’s remarks). 

But I have a confession to make: I actually liked the speech. Maybe even loved it. Now, hear me out:

1. He was pretty much on time with it. The speech was set to be delivered at 8:00 pm Eastern, and Biden began speaking by roughly 8:02 pm. Given his penchant for being late — often very late — for such events/addresses, I appreciated the near-promptness (because frankly, it had already been a long day, and I was already borderline exhausted, so cooling my heels waiting on Joe wasn’t high on my list of things I wanted to be doing).
2. The address came (relatively) early on a Wednesday evening, rather than at some odd hour when I was attempting to relax and not be glued to my computer, as so often has been the case of late. I know it’s naive to expect or even hope that big news will accommodate my schedule, but I appreciate it when it does. 
3. It was blessedly short. Biden’s remarks lasted for only 10 or 11 minutes. This allowed for less bloviating, less annoying, less infuriating, and less straining to understand what exactly was being said. Also, see #1 above re: exhaustion.
4. It offered proof of life. It’s 2024, and we live in weird times. Between contradicting narratives, flat-out lies, the potential for deep fakes, cheap fakes, and AI exploitation, one can never be certain whether what one is seeing/hearing is actually REAL. The Joe Biden who sat, somewhat awkwardly, at the Resolute Desk Wednesday night looked to be real, albeit not in great shape. The bronzer helped some, but there still were some questi ons about possible bruising/swelling on the left side of his face, maybe his teeth looking…off. There’s good reason for all the speculation regarding the president’s well-being, but he does look to be alive, if not well. 
5. The essential nothingness of it was, in my view, actually a blessing. There was nothing earth-shattering here to send us all scrambling for our phones and keyboards. As frenetic as the past month has been, the fact that this moved the needle not one whit was oddly reassuring — a chance for a momentary breather. 
6. It left room for further speculation about the palace intrigue. Now, this may seem to contradict #5, but that was more as to the immediate moment of Wednesday night. Those of us who live in the political-media world, let’s be honest, thrive to a certain degree on palace intrigue: speculating, predicting, gaming it all out. Biden’s minimalist remarks leave plenty of room for that. 
7. The sourpuss look on Jill Biden’s face. If I’m being perfectly honest, I used to almost like Jill Biden, but as they say, familiarity breeds contempt. Her odd fashion choices notwithstanding, Jill has steadily lost whatever respect I may have once had for her by advocating for her clearly deteriorating husband’s continued pursuit of a second term. She, of all people, knew best what was happening to him, and instead of encouraging him to call it good at one term, seemingly pushed him to pursue a second — which meant running a rapidly aging, increasingly confused elderly man ragged. And not only has he suffered for it — the country has. So, sorry, Jill, keep sucking on those lemons. 
8. The grim look on Hunter Biden’s face. Unlike Jill, I never liked Hunter. Perhaps, if he’d ever shown an ounce of humility, I’d have mustered some empathy for whatever dysfunction he endured at a young age to elicit the demons he’s clearly beset with, but I’ve yet to observe any redeeming qualities in the First Son. He’s made an ugly bed for himself, and while there likely remains a full pardon in his father’s pocket, seeing the ne’er do well squirm is gratifying. 
9. He didn’t resign. I half-expected him to — and I absolutely get (and largely agree with) the arguments in favor of him doing so. But I’m not ready for a Kamala Harris presidency. I’m not sure any of us are. As screwy as things are now, I can only imagine them 100 times worse with Kamala at the helm. Maybe it would/will be better just to rip the Bandaid off, send Joe off to Shady Pines, and brace for the impact of Kamalalalala in Charge, but I’m not there yet. If it’s possible for Joe to “pass the torch” without burning the entire place down in the process, I think I’d prefer that. 
10. For all the hue and cry from Joe and his party (and lapdog media) about “threats to our democracy,” Joe formally acknowledged that the United States is a republic. Toward the end of his remarks, he said:

When Ben Franklin was asked as he emerged from the convention going on, whether the founders have given America a monarchy or republic, Franklin’s response was “a republic, if you can keep it.” A republic if you can keep it. Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands.

That, right there, is worth the price of admission, in my view. Because yes, ours is a republic, not a democracy (or mobocracy) — most definitely worth keeping. So, I’m glad, in remarks that will be preserved for all of history, our sitting president correctly acknowledged that. It’s about time. 

And there you have it. Joe Biden has given countless speeches over his half-century-plus in public life — some of them not even plagiarized. But while many have made me roll my eyes if not outright irked me, this one, I think, may be my favorite.