The first is former President Trump, who painted a vivid picture of an America sliding into chaos for the Conservative Political Action Conference last month. The second is President Biden, extolling the nation's resilience in his State of the Union address last week. It was an echo of his 2017 inaugural address, when he described the state of the nation as "American carnage." If Biden's sounds over-optimistic, Trump's sounds cartoonishly dystopian, out of sync with the reality that the economy is genuinely improving. Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 12, 2024 06:41 UTC