Optimism in the face of the pandemic in the US, according to a 1:28 survey
(CNN) -
President Joe Biden commemorated a year of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the country with his first prime-time address.
It was a speech in which he mixed concrete figures on vaccine distribution with calls for unity and a deep-seated belief in America's power to overcome any challenge.
My takeaways from Biden's speech, which lasted just over 20 minutes, are below.
They are in no other order than the one in which I wrote them down while watching the speech.
1. Donald Trump was the one who dug the hole
Biden did not mention his predecessor by name, but especially in the opening moments of his speech, it was very clear that the current president placed much of the blame for the country's difficulties in the face of the coronavirus pandemic at the feet of the last president. .
"A year ago, we were hit by a virus that met with silence and spread uncontrollably, denials for days, weeks, and then months," Biden said at one point.
"That led to more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness."
At another point, Biden removed his mask and expressed his amazement that it had become something of a political statement.
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2. The return of empathy
Biden made a single gesture in the speech that demonstrated the empathy with which he operates in the face of the lives lost by this pandemic.
He pulled a card from his jacket pocket, which he said he carries with him wherever he goes, and read the exact, up-to-date number of Americans who have died from the coronavirus.
(That number is more than 527,000).
Yes, of course, Biden did that for dramatic effect.
But it worked.
And he conveyed the idea that this is a leader who keeps those who have died from the pandemic close to his heart, literally.
It also provided a not-so-subtle contrast to Trump's overt politicization of the virus and those who succumbed to it.
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3. At war with the virus
In the language he chose, and the comparisons he made, Biden clearly wanted Americans to understand that we are at war with COVID-19.
He said the country was on a "war footing."
He noted that Covid-19 had now killed more Americans than World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined.
Even in quoting A
Farewell to Arms
- "many are strong in broken places" - Biden was invoking Ernest Hemingway's novel on World War I.
The message was clear: This is not an enemy the United States is used to fighting.
Yet he is an enemy, and the need for sacrifice and unity is as great as it was when the United States was fighting the Axis powers.
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4. The truth is important
Again, following point 1, Trump was not mentioned by name in this speech, but he was everywhere.
“We know what we have to do to defeat this virus;
tell the truth, follow the science, work together, ”Biden said at one point, a direct rebuke of Trump's rejection of the facts and science about the coronavirus during the course of his campaign in 2020.
"Nothing less is owed to you than the truth," Biden said at another point.
And even while playing a mostly optimistic note about a return to normalcy - more on that below - Biden was open and transparent that things could change direction, that there are variants of the virus and that if the practices of Adequate mitigation could be in another wave.
5. UNIT
In the most remarkable moment of the night, the President of the United States stared into the camera lens and said to the American people, "I need you."
Then he said it again: "I need you."
(Scott Wilson of
The Washington Post
called it "the most memorable and unusual call in prime-time presidential speeches.")
Over and over again in the speech, Biden spoke about the power of "we" to overcome covid-19.
He spoke of the need to find a "common purpose."
He said that "overcoming this virus and getting back to normal depends on national unity."
And "I need all Americans to do their part."
The idea of the United States coming together to do this was in contrast to the Trump presidency, in which the 45th president sought, from the coronavirus to immigration to race, to emphasize what divides us rather than our common humanity.
"This is the United States of America and there is nothing we cannot do when we do it together," Biden said in the final moments of his speech.
6. Mark the 4th of July on the calendar
Biden said that for Independence Day, "there's a good chance ... they'll be able to get together and have a cookout or barbecue in their backyard."
It never sounded better to hang out in my backyard with some friends on a sweltering Washington summer day!
As NBC's Craig Melvin noted: “Well, it seems that July 4th, Independence Day, takes on a whole new meaning.
Now it is a goal.
That is exactly correct.
July 4 is now the day, or around the day, that the country will begin to return to something close to normal, at least according to Biden.
Now he needs to deliver on that promise or he will have the date hanging around his neck as a political anchor, like Trump's ridiculous promise that we would begin to return to normal on Easter Sunday 2020.
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7. "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing of all"
That line, spoken by Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) to Red (Morgan Freeman) in "The Shawshank Redemption" kept popping up in my head during Biden's speech.
(Maybe it's because "Shawshank" was trending on Twitter around the same time that Biden spoke!).
Biden used his speech, yes, to detail the losses we have suffered, singularly and collectively, from covid-19.
But it also pointed to a hopeful future that is within our grasp as we continue to work together.
"There is hope, light, and better days ahead," Biden said near the end of the speech, and the image that came to mind was Red walking down that beach in Zihuatanejo while Andy works on his boat.
What a beautiful moment.
Covid-19Joe Biden