Biden hits campaign trail riding train of positive State of the Union reviews

Reveling in warm reviews for a fiery State of the Union speech, Joe Biden was set to hit the campaign trail on Friday, heading for Philadelphia as his re-election rematch with Donald Trump finally began in earnest.

Three days after the former president dominated the Super Tuesday primaries and saw off the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, his last rival for the Republican nomination, Biden was set to speak at a middle school in Wallingford, the sort of suburb that has trended Democratic as Republicans have marched to the right.

Pennsylvania is also a battleground state, won by Biden in 2020 but targeted by Republicans not only as they seek to take back the White House but as a step towards regaining the Senate majority.

Public opinion that Biden is too old for a second term persists but the 81-year-old president was on his way to Philadelphia with a spring in his step.

Heralding a pugilistic speech in which Biden attacked Trump without uttering his name, championed Democratic policies and parried Republican catcalls, the president’s campaign said he had “laid out his unifying vision for the nation”.

That vision, the campaign said, meant “building an economy that gives everyone a fair shot, protecting reproductive freedom, standing with our allies, and defending democracy.

“It’s a vision that could not be more different than Donald Trump’s plans to enact revenge and retribution, strip Americans of their fundamental rights, and spread hate and division.”

The campaign also said voters watching the speech “overwhelmingly approved of the ‘fiery’, ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’ vision from President Biden”.

Republicans naturally disagreed.

The far-right Virginia congressman Bob Good attempted to keep a spotlight on Biden’s age,