Last night, Joe Biden managed to not be a stumbling, mumbling, reanimated corpse. Instead, jacked up on Red Bull and whatever Hunter gave him, the Big Guy was a loud, slurring, angry old man yelling at clouds.

The media promptly went into full slobber mode. Joe Scarborough pronouced this “Biden’s best speech.” John Harwood was gloating over Biden’s “vigor.” The word of the day is “fiery” as the Associated Press, CNBC, and Reuters all use that word in their titles describing the State of the Union. The memo went out, apparently. Hilariously, the Associated Press has now changed their headline to read “feisty” because they apparently realized what was happening. It’s okay, though – I got a screenshot.

The spin from members of Congress has been stellar. Apparently they were all crowing about the speech to Biden’s face last night.

The address was obviously a hit with the Democrats in the chamber, who applauded frequently and broke into chants of “Four more years!” at every opportunity.

The Democratic love continued after the address, as Bidein mingled with the congress members and senators long after the speech had ended.

Cameras picked up bits of the conversations, with lawmakers like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse coming up to tell the president, “Great job!”

“That was a sermon tonight!” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock enthused.

Texas Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar went in for a selfie and enthused, “You were on fire!” and “Great job on the border!”

In one humorous exchange, Nadler told Biden, “Nobody’s gonna talk about cognitive impairment now!”

“You know, I kinda wish sometimes I was cognitively impaired! Seriously.” the president cracked.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was doing his best “how are you, fellow kids?” routine to the press this morning.

Democrat Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is trying to hard this morning.

"Smokin' Joe Biden was on fire during the State of the Union address. He was lit." pic.twitter.com/B5z6cG2Hv8

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 8, 2024

Pro tip from someone with teenagers in the house, Congressman – “smokin'” and “lit” are not two words you want to use on the morning after a speech where it is plain as day that Joe Biden was pumped full of uppers in order to keep him awake past his bedtime. VERY different meanings there.

Also, you can tell when the meds wore off last night. This was 25 minutes after the speech ended.

“This way, sir, the ice cream is waiting for you in the car,” is probably the next line coming from the Secret Service’s mouth.

The problem is that now, with all the media rejoicing over the old man staying up late, hopped up on speed, proclaiming his “fiery” “vigor,” Joe Biden now has zero excuses to NOT debate Donald Trump. The assumption has been, of course, that Biden will refuse to debate Trump because there is no way that the campaign can keep up the façade over three debates – or even one debate that lasts for two hours – that Joe Biden has more than five neurons still firing in his brain at any given time (unless ice cream is involved). We know that Biden practiced the State of the Union speech because all presidents do (and his official Twitter/X account put out a picture of himself reading it). You can do all the debate prep in the world, but all bets are off when it’s just you, your opponent, and a moderator. Does anyone really think that Joe Biden can get through a two-hour debate against Donald Trump again? And now the media – and Team Biden – have painted themselves into a corner. You can’t insist to the American people that Joe Biden is totally sharp and at the top of his game – look how LOUD AND FIERY he was at the State of the Union! – and then demur when it comes to debating Donald Trump. And they are trying to demur, as we can see from Karine Jean-Pierre trying to dodge (who else?) Peter Doocy’s question about the debates.

Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly declines to say if Biden will debate President Trump before the election pic.twitter.com/r6aKO8LSwA

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 6, 2024

The excuse that they will try to use, of course, is that Donald Trump refused to do any debates during the primary. Yes, and so did Joe Biden, despite the (admittedly) long-shot challengers asking for debates. Biden’s refusal to debate was couched as “the incumbent does not need to debate” – which, ironically, was exactly Donald Trump’s argument. But we are now talking about the general election. Both men are the de facto nominees of their respective parties, barring a black swan event of some kind. And Donald Trump has already thrown the debate gauntlet down.

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will debate President Joe Biden “anytime, anywhere, anyplace” as the two men turned their attention toward a general election rematch a day after dominating Super Tuesday primaries.

“It is important for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate issues that are so vital to American, and the American people,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social media platform. “Therefore, I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!”

This is a smart move by Trump, because it puts Team Biden in the driver’s seat on whether or not the debates happen. While the women on “The View” complain that Biden doesn’t need to respond to Trump or engage with him in a debate, that won’t be the opinion of the American public. Ironically, Biden’s very juiced SOTU performance may have damned him when it comes to debates. If Biden refuses to debate, an excuse that Trump is under legal indictment/convicted/whatever won’t fly once he is officially the Republican nominee, and if the cases remain unresolved before the election. If Biden chooses to debate (and I have a feeling that if it is up to Joe Biden, who seems to still think he is a spring chicken, he would choose to debate), then the question becomes just how good the campaign’s drug stash becomes, and can the old man last for two hours against Donald Trump?

In short, Biden could be damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t when it comes to the debates. The first one has been scheduled for six months from now, on Monday, September 16th, with two more in early October. So Trump would be smart to keep pressing the question, and Team Biden will have to keep ducking it until after the conventions are over. After all, six months is a political eternity, and Joe Biden will be walking up and down a lot of stairs in those six months.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click