Voters Chose Boring Over Bombast. They Got Biden’s Penchant for Pontificating.

Even the president labeled a speech boring recently, an admission that highlights a tendency toward delivering minutiae-filled discourse over scaling oratorical heights.

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. — Even President Biden thought he had been ponderous. “I know that’s a boring speech,” the 46th president said at the end of 31 minutes and 19 seconds filled with statistics (2,374 Illinois bridges), academic studies (on-site child care increases productivity), global gross domestic product comparisons (China used to be No. 9, but is now No. 2) and predictions of 7.4 percent economic growth (though “the O.E.C.D. thinks it could be higher,” Mr. Biden noted, referring to the not exactly electrifying Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.) The president’s remarks on Wednesday, delivered to a friendly and respectful crowd of supporters at McHenry County College in this Chicago suburb, even included “reconciliation,” which Mr. Biden quickly admitted was a “fancy” Washington word.