Biden hits road after fiery State of Union speech

President Joe Biden hit the road yesterday with trips to the election battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Florida, after a barnstorming State of the Union speech reinforcing expectations that the 80-year-old will seek a second term.Biden hasn’t announced a re-election bid yet and given his age, many — even from his own party — feel he should step aside in 2024.But his Tuesday night address to Congress and tens of millions of television viewers laid out what amounted to a campaign platform, which he will now pursue in DeForest, Wisconsin, with a speech on the economy, before heading today to the increasingly Republican stronghold of Florida.Standing before a packed chamber on Capitol Hill, Biden appeared to be energised as he delivered a carefully focused message aimed at what he called "forgotten” working class voters and everyday issues like the price of healthcare.Casting himself as a centrist in an era where partisan politics has become something of a bloodsport, his sunny optimism, complete with jokes and frequent pauses to smile, contrasted strongly with aggressive jeering from the ranks of Republican lawmakers.On multiple occasions, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican heading the party’s narrow new majority in the House of Representatives, stood to applaud Biden — and appeared to try to quiet his more radical members.But the raucous far-right wing that effectively has a stranglehold on the party’s congressional leadership broke with convention to hurl boos and insults."Liar!” erupted Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, a conspiracy theory peddling acolyte of Donald Trump, the man Biden defeated in 2020 and who has already opened a bid to stage a rematch and win back the White House in 2024.