SOTU is always a theatrical event, and Trump is exceptionally good at theatrics, but he also read the moment far better than Democrats: his poll numbers soaring, Impeachment Theater a disaster, Americans from all quarters feeling great about the economy.
The Democrats are trapped in a box of their own making, frantically trying to please an angry kook base that has a big social media footprint but near-zero relevance to the lives of ordinary Americans.
Dems put on a show for a tiny gaggle of noisy hate-maddened lunatics. Trump played to a vastly larger audience, a contrast perfectly captured by him delivering a poetic and inspirational closing while Pelosi acted like a toddler and ripped up a copy of his speech.
The Dems badly miscalculated how BAD they look right now, after the impeachment fiasco, the Iowa fiasco, a disastrous presidential primary, etc. They're in a position of weakness right now, and they put on a show that plays into every negative impression Americans have of them.
Of course the opposition party isn't going to lustily applaud everything the president says, especially while he's taking a victory lap for policies they disagree with, but the trick is to avoid looking *small.* Tonight they looked so small they made Trump look like a giant.
The "moderate" course in 2020 for Dems involves assuring voters they won't screw up the good things Trump has done, while pitching their candidate as an improvement over his temperament and style. They damaged that strategy by acting mindlessly hostile to all the good news.
Trump's campaign can easily scupper Dem efforts to pretend someone like Biden or Buttigieg won't kill the geese laying all these economic golden eggs by cutting ads with the more embarrassing Dem tantrums from SOTU. Really hard to run the old-fashioned "moderate" playbook now.
These Dem antics at SOTU might even push an already dismaying primary even further into the left-wing pit by energizing the loonies and making average Dem voters wonder why they should support candidates who promise to maintain policies the Party just treated like garbage.
If Dem voters take a hint from the Party's SOTU antics and want a 2020 candidate who would refuse to applaud rising wages, record-high employment, energy independence, renewed American strength, the rule of law, and war heroes, why wouldn't they just vote for the commie? /end
