By Peter Nicholas -
NBC News
WASHINGTON — The message Joe Biden needed to convey most Thursday night was not so much that the country is strong but that the American president is fit.
It is not the most difficult threshold, but he surpassed it.
Amid polls showing a majority of the country believes he is too old for another four-year term, Biden stood for 68 minutes on the House floor and delivered a powerful, crisp speech.
He then broke the modern presidential record for time spent shaking hands and giving hugs on the floor.
Biden spoke easily about what's at stake in the presidential race, never mentioning former President Donald Trump by name but making more than a dozen references to his "predecessor."
The first came three minutes into the speech, when Biden criticized Trump for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack NATO allies that do not contribute enough money to the alliance.
Making a distinction, Biden said: "My message to President Putin is simple. We will not go away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down."
[Biden did not fly 300,000 undocumented immigrants into the country, as Trump misleadingly said]
Biden got some prepared lines wrong and stumbled a bit during improvisations - especially when he said that drug prices in Moscow are lower than in the United States - but he denied the Republican Party's caricature of him as an old man. weakened person who needs to retire.
"No one is going to talk about cognitive memory now," Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler told the president as he finished his speech and left the House chamber.
That was, of course, the idea when Biden's speechwriters worked on the draft.
The prepared text included 80 exclamation points, telling Biden when he needed to raise his voice and project strength.
On the other hand, in last year's text there were no exclamation marks.
It's too early to know whether Biden's speech will make a lasting impression on voters who saw it.
Biden's campaign is likely to reuse clips from the speech where he was most eloquent, while Republicans could show moments where he stumbled over words.
However, what didn't happen Thursday night may be the most important thing.
Biden, 81, did not stumble as he walked across the floor, as some of his allies feared.
He, too, did not freeze when reading the teleprompter nor did he get nervous when the Republicans booed him.
In fact, he sometimes seemed to goad Republicans into an unscripted exchange.
[T Verifica: The truths and falsehoods of Biden's State of the Union address]
Urging Congress to revive a border security bill that House Republicans had rejected, Biden looked at GOP members and said, "They're saying no. Look at the facts. I know you can read."
Booing can test a president's wit and alacrity.
Last year, Biden's aides were glad Republicans mocked him.
When Republicans booed, saying they had no intention of cutting Social Security and Medicare, as Biden had claimed, Biden improvised that the boos must mean they, too, wanted to protect entitlement programs.
Biden's challenge Thursday night was "to convince people that he has the strength, the energy, the vigor and the focus to be an effective president," Democratic Rep. Adam Smith said in an interview in the hours before the speech.
Gone are the days when the State of the Union address was a unifying national event.
Over the years, it has become a televised drama in which the president and the opposing party, meeting in the House of Representatives, try to gain ground at each other's expense.
Jeff Shesol, speechwriter in Bill Clinton's White House, said in an interview: "Part of the game is making sure you write some lines and sections that force the other party, against their best instincts, to stand up and applaud, or force them to remain seated while the rest applaud the apple pie and the American flag.
[Biden announces the creation of a temporary port to supply aid to Gaza]
The night had a partisan feel from the start.
Biden appeared taken aback when he entered the chamber and made eye contact with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who was sporting a bright red "Make America Great Again" cap.
(House rules prohibit wearing hats on the floor.)
At the lectern, he suggested that he was on the side of democratic freedoms while Trump was among those who wanted to "bury the truth" about the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters nearly prevented the peaceful transfer of the can.
After saying his core values include "honesty, decency, dignity and equality," Biden added: "Now, some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge and retribution. That's not who I am." .
In one breath, she tried to defuse questions about his age while describing Trump as a threat to the functioning of democracy.
The speech started later than usual, and was almost delayed even further.
House Republican leaders were willing to reschedule the speech if Congress failed to reach a budget deal, forcing a partial government shutdown, a GOP leadership aide said.
[Receiving a paralyzed country vs. "an unprecedented recovery": Biden on the US economy]
Republican leaders did not want to give Biden a chance to berate them for a shutdown while millions of Americans watched from home, the adviser said.
It turned out that Congress reached a budget agreement that avoided the shutdown, so the date was not changed.
"We were thinking about moving the speech because we don't want to give [Biden] something to beat us about for an hour," said the House aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
With the campaign now fully engaged, the White House tried to make the most of the speech.
Attendees filled the podium with people symbolizing the key components of the Democratic coalition.
Among those invited to sit next to first lady Jill Biden were Kate Cox of Texas, who had to leave the state to have a doctor-recommended abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
Wade;
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union;
and Bettie Mae Fikes, a civil rights activist who participated in the "Bloody Sunday" march in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
Biden made sure to mention them during his speech.
It is not certain that these types of gestures will be remembered in autumn.
Terry Szuplat, a speechwriter for former President Barack Obama, pointed out the irony of State of the Union addresses.
Despite all the work they entail, they are often quickly forgotten.
"It's the biggest platform a president has, and it often becomes the least memorable speech of his presidency," he said.