The President's Economic Speech in Suffern Mentioned the Economy.

The economic policy speech was held on Friday afternoon in Suffern, New York, at Rockland Community College. The President campaigned for the local Republican congressman, Mike Lawler. The event was billed as speaking on the economy.

In the order they appeared, the topics he covered:

Voter identification. Crime in cities. Transgender women in sports. A new label for the opposition party, “Dumocrats,” which he workshopped in real time at the lectern. The locked-up state of toiletries inside American pharmacies. A poll he conducted of the audience on what to call his predecessor (“Who likes Sleepy Joe Biden? Crooked Joe Biden?”). A reference to dirty streets. A reference to rigged elections.

Eventually, the tax cut.

What it was about, briefly.

The tax legislation he signed into law last year was, per the program, the substantive content of the speech. He arrived at it after the toiletry complaint. He told the crowd he had cut taxes for workers, families, and small business. He thanked Congressman Lawler. The crowd, per the wires, chanted “USA!”

This portion lasted roughly the time it takes to read this paragraph aloud.

On polling the audience for nicknames.

Mid-speech, the President paused to ask the crowd which nickname he should use for the former president. Two options were offered. The crowd weighed in. The deliberative process worked as designed.

This is the kind of moment that, in a different decade, would have ended a campaign. Here it was a rhetorical bridge between the toiletry observation and the next item.

On the toiletries.

He noted that the toiletries are locked up. This is true. Pharmacies began locking up consumer goods over the last several years in response to retail theft, a documented operational decision by chain pharmacy retailers. The President did not explain how this became an item in a presidential economic speech. The audience accepted it.

A small note on the office.

The Office of the Presidency, on a Friday afternoon, in front of cameras, in a congressional district that decides House control, polled an audience on a nickname.

This is not the worst thing the Office has done this week. It is not the second-worst, either. It is on the record, calmly, in the wires.