BIDEN’S PROBLEM FOR THE STATE OF THE UNION: A friend comments that Biden isn’t getting the expected “scary times” bounce in the polls because Zelensky is making him — and every other Western leader — look weak by comparison. Also, the obvious moves to announce on Tuesday would be a boost in defense spending, and a raft of policy moves (expanded fracking, leases on federal land, Keystone pipeline approval, expanded nuclear power, etc.) designed to deprive Putin of his energy leverage. But the Democratic base would hate those moves, sensible as they are. So he’s kinda stuck. The smart thing to do would be to tell the crazy base to buzz off, but today’s Dems seem incapable of that.