Golden State Today

Former Pacific Research Institute (PRI) speechwriter Lance Izumi said none of the individuals cited in President Biden’s State of the Union Address stood out as memorable, except for one, highlighting a lack of impactful moments and contributing to the overall ineffectiveness of the address. Izumi was a guest on a recent episode of the Next Round Podcast.

"From my first viewing of the speech, the people that he cited were not really memorable to me," said Izumi on the Next Round Podcast hosted by the Pacific Research Institute think tank. "Right now, the only person I can really recall in particular was the Prime Minister of Sweden.”

"I'm not disparaging any of these individuals personally," Izumi said. “They have important stories, but there was no one in my view who gave the speech a wow moment in terms of the president citing that person in the gallery. That being the case, they were just part of this long, unending flow of an unfortunately ineffective speech.”

This full episode is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Izumi served as chief speechwriter to Gov. Deukmejian and Attorney General Ed Meese before assuming roles as president of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges and as a commissioner on the California Postsecondary Education Commission. He is now the senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute.

Next Round is a weekly podcast put on by the nonpartisan think tank Pacific Research Institute. Topics explored on the podcast revolve around California politics and free market ideas in the state. Guests include elected officials, members of the media, and policy leaders. 

Pasadena, California-based Pacific Research Institute, founded in 1979, is an advocacy organization whose goal is to “champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions,” according to the group’s website. Its president is Sally Pipes.