In a sense, Putin has made writing Biden’s SOTU much easier; he’ll lead with support for liberal democracy in Ukraine, and get lots of bipartisan applause for it. It’s the kind of unifying theme that works perfectly in a SOTU. It will certainly play better than arguing for patience on inflation, or for bringing back the BBB.
The real question is, will Biden connect the dots between Putin’s threat to liberal democracy in Europe and Trump’s actions at home? Will he dare to lay out the equation Putin =Trump and call for the protection of our electoral system from thugs and opportunistic right-wing politicians?
My guess is that he will decide the SOTU is the wrong time and place to make that kind of divisive argument. While that may be correct, it remains a valid point, and it needs to be put forward between now and the election.