Senator Ted Cruz has been getting a lot of attention for appearing to doze off during President Joe Biden’s address to Congress. The memes and jokes took off on Twitter.
With Joe Biden (not sleepy or in his basement) outlining a bold and vigorous blueprint for American action, I guess some people had to go to their “happy place.” Maybe he was dreaming about Cancun.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) April 29, 2021
Ted Cruz is sleeping as soundly now as he did in the Ritz Carlton while Texans were freezing to death.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) April 29, 2021
re: "Sleepy Ted" I forgive Ted Cruz for falling asleep. I've been sleeping a lot better since Joe Biden has been in office too. ❤️
— ClarityPenn 2021!😷Breathe carefully. (@EJFFLORIDA) April 29, 2021
While it may be rude to sleep during a president’s speech, Trevor Noah took a different approach to Cruz’s behavior (watch above). The Daily Show host joked, “honestly, that was the most relatable thing that Ted Cruz has ever done. Because that speech was boring.”
Noah said a speech a policy proposal should be like a set of directions, boring, “I mean, when did we decide that you can only judge a policy proposal based on how entertaining the performance of it is?”
Cruz actually opined that Biden was “deliberately being boring.”
“It was monotone. The chamber was nearly empty and that really has characterized the first 100 days of Joe Biden, that’s he’s tried to say nothing notable. He’s tried to tweet nothing notable.”
Yes, Cruz now seems to suggest you are only a good president if you tweet crazy thoughts and entertain crowds of supporters.
Joe Biden is deliberately being boring, but the substance of what he is saying is radical. #BoringButRadical pic.twitter.com/37YS701pyn
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 29, 2021
Many political analysts say being “boring” is working for Biden and may be one of the big reasons he got elected.
"Boring but radical" kind of sums up the Republican problem with fighting Biden. If he's boring its hard to mobilize against him. https://t.co/JgoiSrT1i1
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) April 29, 2021
Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Post and Courier writes, “Boring is Joe Biden’s superpower:”
“As Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine notes, being personally boring doesn’t necessarily translate into a boring agenda. Biden is on a path to enlarge government’s role in American life, borrowing trillions to do it, in ways not seen since Lyndon B. Johnson or FDR.”
Biden has to be happy to be attacked as boring. He has succeeded in lowering the salience of politics (which probably means low ratings for the speech) but he’s been consistently helped by the low expectations. The low salience also means it is harder to attack plans as overreach https://t.co/WQr9BXq2bn
— Matt Grossmann (@MattGrossmann) April 29, 2021
*This post contains opinion