Biden’s State of the Union hushed Demo­c­ra­t­ic crit­i­cism but hasn’t helped him in the polls

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s State of the Union appeared to appease the Demo­c­ra­t­ic polit­i­cal chat­ter­ing class, mem­bers of which have expressed con­cern about his age and men­tal acu­ity before November’s gen­er­al elec­tion.
But his address has not res­onat­ed in pub­lic polls, at least not yet.
In the week since Biden’s State of the Union, his last before his elec­tion against for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump amid spec­u­la­tion the pair may not take part in any debates, Biden’s aver­age approval-dis­ap­proval rat­ing has remained rough­ly the same, 38%-56%, accord­ing to FiveThir­tyEight. Anoth­er polling aggre­ga­tor, Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics, did find his approval increased dur­ing the same time peri­od, but by less than a per­cent­age point to 40%, while his dis­ap­proval decreased by the same per­cent­age change to 55%.
His­tor­i­cal­ly, State of the Union address­es have not shift­ed pub­lic opin­ion much, but Biden’s 2024 speech was dif­fer­ent since it marked the start of the gen­er­al elec­tion and came at a cru­cial moment for his p …