The SOTU (don't Washington acronyms make you nauseous?) is supposed to be a report to Congress, "recommend[ing] to their consideration such measures as [the President] shall judge necessary and expedient." Instead, tonight will be the administration's attempt to complete a Hail Mary pass to try and avoid embarrassing defeat later this year.
Reason #1 - He Learned from the "Best"
Not too long ago, presidents led (led, not lied). They were far from perfect, but they led. There was tough campaigning, but once you won - you won. Then, it was time to be President. Biden's last boss, Barak Obama, threw that out the window. Since Obama's only real skill was campaigning, he just kept doing it. For eight years. Even after he won. Twice.
Biden and his team certainly saw that. That is one reason tonight will almost certainly degenerate into what Washington would call the MOACS - Mother Of All Campaign Speeches.
Reason #2 - Joe Doesn't Know Where He Is
Like Obama, Biden, too, is proving stegosauruses don't change their stripes. Since the Jurassic Period, Joe Biden was one of 100 US senators, and from a very small state. He worked hard be relevant (and, apparently, to make a little bank on the side). Back-benchers like Biden spend time trying to dazzle the press by name-dropping and making predictions, based on their "inside knowledge and connections." It gets them the attention politicians crave.
If you look at his comments on Ukraine up until the moment of the invasion, he is answering questions like he's an aspiring policy wonk - trying to carve out a reputation as well-connected and insightful. He name-drops that he spoke with European leaders and makes predictions of what Putin might do, when.
That is not what you do, if you are actually the Leader of the Free World (which, frighteningly, he is supposed to be).
What an actual president would do, at a minimum, is forcefully insist Putin not invade. Simultaneously, develop a plan to deploy if he does (including what support you will give Ukraine), and you present it to other western leaders, rallying their support. Ahead of time.
Instead, he offered predictions like he was one of the myriad pre-game hosts on Fox NFL Sunday. And, after it happened, he just sort of reluctantly went along with whatever European leaders concocted. Joe, you are not a press box analyst - you are supposed to be playing quarterback!
So, in the unlikely event he has any input to the SOTU, it will reflect the political hack he still is.
Reason #3 - Scoreboard
Obviously, his poll numbers suck.
As they should. Essentially, everything is significantly worse since he came into office. And the things that aren't worse are primarily in spite of him - certainly not because of him. Perversely, he hopes the Ukraine nightmare will somehow help with that - or at least, distract from it. But, the SOTU might be one of the few opportunities he has left to build momentum in his direction ahead of the mid-terms.
Consequently, I'm sure some highly-gifted propagandists have crafted the MOACS, employing vapid rhetoric, needle-in-a-haystack anecdotes and contrived statistics to make it seem like our problems are not the Left's fault and that the administration is well on it's way to fixing everything.
And feeble Joe will read it off the teleprompter like one of those creepy dolls ventriloquists use, to thunderous applause from the Leftist-controlled Congress.
If anyone buys it, It will be an ode to just how much BS you can feed people. But, we have lots of recent examples of how gullible people are.
Joe Biden is not Joe Namath or Joe Montana or Joe Theisman or Joe Burrow or even Joe Flacco, but maybe his desperation Hail Mary pass will work. We will see.