'Republicans made a mistake': Pollster identifies GOP's biggest blunder on Biden SOTU

[Tom of Temecula]

Sarah Longwell, a one-time Republican pollster who has kept her distance from the party ever since the emergence of former President Donald Trump, said the GOP made a grievous error by setting expectations so low for President Joe Biden's State of the Union response.

Appearing on CNN Friday morning, Longwell said that Biden delivered an excellent address by any standard, but she added that its impact was enhanced because Republicans had spent so many months writing off Biden as a doddering invalid on the cusp of death's door.

"Last night, what he said was for the Democratic base," Longwell explained. "But how he said it was for swing voters who needed to see that this guy was all there, that he could do the job. And I told you yesterday when I was on the show, the Republicans have made a mistake because they set the bar at dementia."

Longwell said that the sharpness of Biden's address made he easily cleared that bar and added that "if that's what dementia looks like then I hope that's how I have dementia when I'm older because he was on his game." Longwell also said that the Republican reaction to Biden's address showed that he was on top of his game.

https://www.rawstory.com/biden-sotu-gop-response/

[marble falls]

1. He spanked them good, real good. Been waiting for him to step out and he came with an A+ game.

[2naSalit]

7. He didn't even wait...

For Johnson to introduce him! He came out swinging and stayed soundly on his feet to the end and then some. He didn't look fatigued during the hour + that it took for him to make it through to the door.

And everyone he spoke with was smiling and enjoying the interactions. Bet he doesn't smell like dirty diapers and BO too.

[rubbersole]

29. The smell was coming from Johnson's freshly shit in pants 💩👖.

[Roc2020]

9. Yes he did

Wiped their faces in the dog doo doo of Trump. Serves them right.

[Demsrule86]

24. Yes he did Marble Falls...real good Rec

[Lonestarblue]

2. Democrats need to use clips from the SOTU next to clips of Trump's confused word salads at his rallies.

That would be quite a contrast for voters.

[2naSalit]

4. Pretty sure...

That's going to happen. You just know that TLP has a whole pile of ads using pieces of this speech.

[ShazzieB]

40. TLP?

That's a new one on me.

[2naSalit]

42. The Lincoln Project.

[ShazzieB]

44. Oh, that's right! 🤦

I don't know why I didn't think of that, d'oh!

Thanks.

[2naSalit]

45. It's okay...

I've done it myself.

[rgbecker]

3. If you lie all the time about someone you are sure to get caught by the truth.

Trump, in every speech, tells of Biden being the worse president ever. Biden's speech last night showed the truth and the GOP is getting spanked.

[PJMcK]

57. Trump projects his flaws onto other

The other week, a serious group of presidential historians listed American president from best to worst. Lincoln was number one, Trump was dead last.

It’s obvious why Trump would call President Biden the worst. It’s projection.

Trump is going down. His consistent history as a loser is catching up to him.

[underpants]

5. Local talk radio was spinning like crazy this morning

I haven’t heard anything about Trump’s supposed play by play take on it.

[llmart]

16. Have there been any angry, all caps tweets from you-know-who?

Or as he's better known, tfg, tsf and now "predecessor".

I love how Joe used that last term throughout. It gave the impression of how it's presidency was just a blip on his radar without seeming too unclassy for a real President, even though we know Joe likes the tsf meme better.

[IbogaProject]

18. What is TSF?

is it just The S*!t Face ?

[UniqueUserName]

19. TSF - the sick f*ck

It was reported that that is how Biden refers to Trump in private.

[IbogaProject]

20. perfect

Thank you, very accurate description.

[COL Mustard]

56. I like that one too!!!

[DemocraticPatriot]

22. He called President Biden "angry" and "crazy". lol

Pot, meet kettle...

[underpants]

23. WRVA listeners have a completely different reality

If that’s what you were alluding to

[ShazzieB]

41. TSF is just jealous because "angry and crazy" is HIS brand!

[Mr.Bill]

53. He'd better believe

that the majority of the country is damn angry, because we are. But he's the one that's crazy.

[NJCher]

55. Did you see that political show that

Interviewed people who watched it? There were a lot of comments, about 15 or so. MSNBC.

People are not very tactful.

One lady said “they’re both old. But trump is old AND crazy.”

[Demsrule86]

25. Not for long...Soros is buying Audacy. This will give right wing talk radio a run for their money.

[underpants]

30. I haven't heard our local station mention that

They did change from ABC News back to Fox. It was a weird combination of something close to reality followed by the host (local during both drive times) spending time trying to refute what the listeners just heard.

They dumped Glen Beck and picked up Kilmeade from Fox n Friends. Good lord he’s actually dumber than he appears to be on TV. Not just lying but not really able to string together sentences or a thought.

[Marthe48]

6. More rwnj projection

rwnj traitor boy is demented, and you'd have to have a screw loose not to realize the mental state traitor is in. So projection.

[niyad]

8. Hey, rawstory, do you actually have something like an editor? "on the cusp

of death's door"??? "made he easily cleared"??? Annoying, to say the least.

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Yeah, and what's with the

Paragraph long sentences? Don't they know how to use a period?

Either it was a poorly edited AI written article or someone doesn't know how American cliche, idioms and periods work.....or both.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. RawStory eats raw stories and excretes them out as crappy brown click bait. . . . . . . nt

[Ocelot II]

27. Raw Story is a mess - badly-written clickbait parasitizing other news outlets.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. They did the same thing 4 years ago

They set the bar at senility and then Biden wiped the floor with Trump in 2 debates and that narrative just disappeared. Same thing happened last night.

[BeyondGeography]

11. We made the same mistake with Reagan over and over again

I’m 40-some odd years older now so I can admit it.

[NYC Liberal]

14. Bush as well

Now, I don’t think Bush is the smartest man alive. But unfortunately Dems set the bar so low in 2004 that as long as he wasn’t drooling on himself and mumbling incoherently, he was going to exceed expectations.

[happy feet]

21. My recollection is

The Republican Party kept lowering the bar of expectations , it wasn’t the Dems.

[cab67]

36. you're not wrong, but...

...I think the level to which Republicans underestimated Biden's capability was at a different order of magnitude.

For all the signs of increasing impairment, Reagan was a trained actor, and his ability to speak in public was never really questioned.

[BeyondGeography]

37. That was framed as airhead B-movie actor blah blah blah

Speaking for myself, I didn’t know the backstory. The GE years and all that involved in terms of getting to know his corner of the country and honing his schtick. The ‘64 convention speech where he stole the show from Goldwater. His work habits as governor of CA which were actually pretty diligent. Nixon lived in fear of him as a challenger in ‘68. Ford barely beat him out in ‘76. The guy had paid his political dues and deserved a lot more respect as a serious opponent than I was giving him and I wasn’t alone.

[cab67]

39. fair enough

[cilla4progress]

12. For anyone who's watched him this was not surprising!

Russian propaganda has its limits!!!

[LiberalFighter]

13. Someone on Morning Joe made that assessment too. They set the bar too low.

[Martin68]

17. Exactly!

[Rocknation]

26. "Republicans had spent so many months writing off Biden as a doddering invalid

on the cusp of death's door..."

While actively ignoring the fact that their alternative to Biden IS a Republican doddering invalid on the cusp of death's door...


Rocknation

[DFW]

31. It sounds like the Republicans convinced themselves they were running a 1000 yard dash against a double amputee

And instead their opponent turned out to be an Olympic gold medalist sprinter.

Oops.

[DownriverDem]

32. Biden rocked it!

I vote the issues & the MAGAs offer nothing to the majority of women, enlightened men & GenZs.

[republianmushroom]

33. Yes they did. He is a master politician, not a burned out so called billionaire.

The result are only going to get worst for the republicans.

[Qutzupalotl]

34. Maybe that's why he skipped the Super Bowl pre-game interview.

Just so he could have a more jarring, in-your-face, what-were-you-people-thinking SotU. Or rope-a-dope, as others have said.

At the time, I thought skipping was a mistake. Today, not so much. Biden certainly knows what he's doing.

[Qutzupalotl]

35. As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War:

Last edited Fri Mar 8, 2024, 04:58 PM - Edit history (1)

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

Guess which of the candidates go where.

[DavidDvorkin]

38. It's the same mistake Democrats made with Reagan in 1980

In that case, they were correct about him being a dangerous wacko, but the problem was that when the public saw him on TV, he came across as genial and likable instead.

[Cha]

43. An made "dr" Hur look like a Complete partisan Idiot.

TY!

[BootinUp]

46. I think she is right, lol.

[soldierant]

47. It's never a good idea to believe your own ppress releases.

But it's rare (and this time wonderful) to see a whole party doing it at the same time.

[Gore1FL]

48. "(T)hey set the bar at dementia."

A bar their own candidate is unlikley to top on election day; I am not sure he can pass a dementia test now.

[unblock]

51. Person man woman camera tv. Someone thought he needed to take that test. *3 years* ago.

[Climate Crusader]

49. I'm not a conspiracy theory person, but...

I'd swear the president sandbagged them.He made them believe he was weak and when they dropped their defense, he popped them in the jaw.

[FakeNoose]

52. I'm pretty sure the sandbagging happened at Faux Noise

It's the only thing they know how to do at Faux. Since the Repukes (most of them) never watch any other channel, that's all they see 24/7/365.

[elleng]

50. *impact was enhanced because Republicans had spent so many months writing off Biden

as a doddering invalid on the cusp of death's door.

"Last night, what he said was for the Democratic base," Longwell explained. "But how he said it was for swing voters who needed to see that this guy was all there, that he could do the job. And I told you yesterday when I was on the show, the Republicans have made a mistake because they set the bar at dementia."'

[DFW]

54. Republicans are ignoring a fundamental principle of politics

“Tell all the lies you want, but never believe them yourself.”