[guest post by Dana]

As voters watch President Biden tonight and take the opportunity to assess whether they believe he can manage another bid for the presidency, the AP reports that the President intends to present a “reassuring assessment of the nation’s condition.” People will want to be reassured when faced with the turmoil in the world. Now, whether he’s convincing or accurate will be up for discussion. However, if new polling is any indicator of the campaign ahead, President Biden may have a tougher time than expected, given that he’s losing Democrat support:

A majority of Democrats now think one term is plenty for President Joe Biden, despite his insistence that he plans to seek reelection in 2024.

That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows just 37% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections.

[T]he poll suggests relatively few U.S. adults give him high marks on either. Follow-up interviews with poll respondents suggest that many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, his gait, his gaffes and the possibility that the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger…

…A majority of Democrats still approve of the job Biden is doing as president, yet their appetite for a reelection campaign has slipped despite his electoral track record. Only 22% of U.S. adults overall say he should run again, down from 29% who said so before last year’s midterm elections.

According to White House aides, dominating tonight’s speech will be the issue of growth in U.S. jobs, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the rise in domestic manufacturing, the ongoing pandemic (remember that the emergency is scheduled to end in May…), and our competition and our foreign policy with China. Regarding China’s spy balloon: Another White House official, who was asked if there would be a specific mention of the balloon in Biden’s speech, said: “It will likely fall more broadly under a larger umbrella of major foreign policy themes reasserting America’s leadership on the world stage.”

As is typical of SOTU speeches, there will be plenty to either love or hate, and plenty to rev up partisan engines in support or disgust.

You can watch the speech live at WH.gov/SOTU, YouTube, and the usual television news outlets at 6 PM PST.

–Dana