The bizarre optics of the State of the Union

The optics were a metaphor for a State of the Union speech that was unbalanced and out of whack, a speech that felt like three different speeches mashed together: one that urged bipartisan cooperation, another that waved a flaming torch in the faces of Democrats, and a third that tried vainly to summon Peggy Noonan-style patriotic poetry in the last five minutes.

It seemed like a retrofitted Ronald Reagan speech, but with "Morning in America" feeling dark and overcast.

Plain and simple, the address was a mess. But even though it's likely to be forgettable, the speech featured a number of optical moments that made a visual impact.

The first was a moment of suspense that came when Trump turned to encounter new nemesis Nancy Pelosi. Much had been made of what would happen when he came into her House for the first time since she scored her takedown over the partial government shutdown. In handing Madam Speaker a copy of his speech, Trump shook her hand before shaking Vice President Mike Pence's, ensuring he would not be accused of snubbing her.

Sitting behind Trump the entire night, nobody could ever accuse Pelosi of being a good poker player. She grimaced, she rolled her eyes, she muttered under her breath every time Trump made a claim not meeting with her approval, especially his assertion that America's strong economy could only be stopped by "ridiculous partisan investigations."

The optical contrast within the chamber was striking. The GOP side was overwhelmingly white, male and old, clad in dark pinstripes. The Democrats across the aisle were younger, more visibly diverse, and in the case of the newly elected women, noticeably dressed in white. The combination of those women seated directly in front of the President, and Pelosi, also dressed in white, sitting behind him, created the impression of Trump being surrounded by the subpoena-wielding lawmakers who could pose a threat to his presidency -- women whose outfits evoked historical suffragists and female solidarity.

This was the very same contingent that stole part of the show when Trump acknowledged that 58% of all new jobs were occupied by women. When the congresswomen erupted in wild, self-congratulatory applause and high-fives, Trump seemed startled at the unintended consequences of his remarks, not unlike his surprise over being laughed at by delegates at the United Nations in September.

Even diehard Republican pundits couldn't sugarcoat their appraisal of Trump's oratory skills. Stiff, wooden and painfully halting in his delivery, the President may have taken the "low energy" mantle away from Jeb Bush. Teleprompter reading has never been his strong suit, and Tuesday's delivery isn't likely to change that perception. He repeatedly stepped on his own applause lines, such as in committing to eradicate HIV/AIDS in 10 years. When he did get the room to stand and cheer, he strangely stepped back from the podium, looked left (ironically) at the GOP side of the room and shifted into bobblehead mode, nodding incessantly at the approval being showered on him.

There were several lines that also flopped outright. The section in which he criticized the investigations directed at him, claimed that if not for him, we would already be at war with North Korea and his intent to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan landed with a thud.

Another declaration that didn't exactly bring down the house was what we might call Trump's Gordon Gekko moment. In signaling that he still refuses to give up on building a wall along the southern border, Trump's claim that "walls work. Walls save lives," was eerily reminiscent of Gekko's twisted creed of the 1980s, "Greed ... is good. ... Greed works."

Trump is by no means the only President to deliver a State of the Union having been weakened and damaged politically. Both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton delivered State of the Union speeches during critical breaking points in their presidencies: Nixon embroiled in Watergate in 1974, Clinton beleaguered by the Monica Lewinsky revelations in 1998.

Under enormous pressure, Clinton crushed his, a speech widely considered one of the greatest political speeches ever. Nixon, declaring that one year of Watergate investigations was enough, was gone from office less than a year later.

Precisely where on that spectrum of oratory effectiveness Trump's speech falls is still to be determined. But the memorable moments from Trump's second State of the Union will likely not be saved on his own personal highlights reel.

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