Will Trump’s State of the Union address top his last one?

OPINION:

Can President Trump boost his ratings among voters in the teeth of his often rough personal tweets and the unyielding effort by the Democrats to have him expelled from the Oval Office? His more congenial side could appear in his State of the Union address, with Mr. Trump having used that forum to excellent effect just last year. The president, like today, was under duress. He was rapidly plunging in the polls after shutting down the government for 35 days, thinking he could pressure the Democrats to fund his border wall.

Politically smarter than his talk-radio kibitzers, he, like Kenny Rogers, knew when to “fold ’em” and reopened the government when his disapproval rating had soared 15 points above his approval mark.

The Queen of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was seen as having humbled the president, forcing him to reopen the government without the wall funding he demanded. But the president had a Hail Mary pass in reserve. He gambled that he could regain popular support in his annual address to members of the House and Senate, which, in fact, he miraculously pulled off, despite some sharp sallies against the Democrats threaded throughout his speech.

He led with his strongest suit by making the booming economy the centerpiece of his address, proclaiming that the drastic reduction in regulations and the “massive tax cuts” for business and “middle-class families” had helped produce “the hottest economy anywhere in the world.” He waxed at length about growing wages, the lowest unemployment rate for blacks and Hispanics ever recorded and jobs coming back to America from overseas. (The Democratic lawmakers may have bathed in the glow of the good news, but virtually none of them had supported any part of the administration’s economic program.)

He also hailed the explosion of the fossil fuel industry which the Democrats seem eager to eliminate. Ignoring their concerns about the supposed danger of greenhouse gases and pitching good paying, pro-national security jobs, Mr. Trump informed the millions of voters watching him on TV that the United States is now “the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world.” And “for the first time in 65 years we are a net exporter of energy.”

He also chastised Democrats for their failure to do anything substantive to lessen “the lawless state of our Southern border,” which he described as “a threat to the safety and security and financial well being of all America.” He condemned alarming calls for socialism from the Democratic left, resolving “never to let America become a Socialist country,” and he stuck it to the would-be impeachers, remarking that nothing can stop our economic progress save “foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations.”

Despite some barbed observations, he did not name call or hurl gratuitous insults at his political foes. And he touched on issues that pleased even Mrs. Pelosi and the Democrats. He praised them for backing legislation to confront the opioid crisis, and a law dear to the president’s heart, the First Step Act, which permits non-violent criminal offenders to earn their way toward freedom. In saluting its passage, he spotlighted two guests, former felons, both black, who had dramatically turned their lives around. His address was rich in patriotism, honoring World War II heroes, several in the audience, and an astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, who had planted an American flag on the moon.

So much of what he said had even the Democrats applauding. And he brought virtually the entire chamber to its feet when he remarked that no one had benefited more from the economic resurgence “than women who have filled 58 percent of the newly created jobs last year.” When the symbol of progressive Democrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her many guests in the chamber spontaneously stood up and cheered, the president thanked them profusely and then advised: “Don’t sit yet. You’re going to like this.” He then noted that “we also have more women serving in Congress than at any time before.” The Ocasio-Cortez crew renewed their celebration, with the entire chamber appearing to join in.

This Donald Trump had wowed Republicans, Democrats and progressives with his optimistic, non-insulting, inclusive, patriotic speech while refusing to cave on his agenda. Even the media cut the president a break. CBS News reported that 76 percent of those who tuned into the address on its network overwhelmingly approved the speech, revealing that Mr. Trump had connected with an audience far greater than the 43 percent of Republican viewers. While only 30 percent of Democrats liked it, 97 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of independents were in Mr. Trump’s corner.

And he had made the case for his tough line on immigration. “From what they heard tonight,” CBS conceded, “71 percent of speech-watchers think there is a crisis at the southern border.” The CBS survey matched other network numbers as well. Within a week of the speech, Rasmussen handed Mr. Trump its highest positive rating since the shutdown ended — 52 percent approval. The president was on a roll.

Can he pull this off again in the heated political atmosphere in the nation’s capital? We’ll find out on Feb. 4.

• Allan H. Ryskind, a former editor and owner of Human Events, is the author of “Hollywood Traitors” (Regnery, 2015).