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For most of early American history the president delivered his state of the union

address to Congress by written report, no need for pomp and circumstance, but these days

the annual address looks a little different.

This first paper, the President of the United States.

This is Swamp Notes, the weekly podcast from the F.T. News briefing where we talk about all of the things happening in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

I'm Mark Filipino, and this week we're asking did President Biden's State of the Union move the needle.

Here with me to discuss is Ed Luce, he's the F.T. U.S. national editor in Columbus and he's the co-author of the Swamp Notes newsletter.

Hey Ed, good to be with you.

And we've also got Steph Chavez, the FT's Washington reporter,

who's writing our brand new U.S. election countdown newsletter.

She's right off the plane from Chicago and DC. Hey, Steph. Hi Mark, how are you?

I'm doing all right. Probably less tired than you are, so really appreciate you being here.

Of course. So we're talking the morning after the stay of the union on Friday and Ed before we dive into the

content of the speech, have you ever seen a stay of the union address like the one that we saw last

night? No, I mean it's a good question.

A lot of them are forgettable because they're laundry lists of President's legislative

agenda.

Biden's in particular have been quite forgettable.

Last night was unforgettable, not just because of the moment,

which is the worst possible polling numbers that Biden's had since he became president, but also because it was a

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