Official portrait of VIce President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in his West Wing office at the White House, Jan. 10, 2013. Will tomorrow’s debate be Uncle Joe versus crazy uncle? Photograph by David Lienermann.

Uncle Joe versus 'crazy uncle' -- the Biden-Trump show

October 21, 2020

Is America an abused, abandoned child in search of a kind uncle? Listening to pundits talk about the first presidential debate and dueling town halls, it certainly seems that way. On the one hand, you have the “crazy uncle” as “Today’s” Savannah Guthrie implied when President Donald J. Trump disavowed the reality of Seal Team Six getting Osama bin Laden under Trump archrival former President Barack Obama. (You have to love the waggish posters who call Trump’s armed, overweight white nationalists “Meal Team Six.”) On the other hand, there’s “Uncle Joe” Biden’s avuncular style on display in his town hall with “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos, with the former vice president offering to meet with questioners afterward for further discussion — and then actually doing it.

The State of the Union – the Trumps’ and ours

February 4, 2018

President Donald J. Trumpet went all “Kumbaya” in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, proclaiming the pablum platitude that every president proclaims – that the state of the union is strong, because the American people are strong and together they’ll continue to be strong, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Look, it’s too little, too late. The mean-spirited, divisive damage is already done, with more always just an unscripted tweet away. And in case you didn’t get that message ...

As the Easter egg rolls: A bromantic breakup

April 18, 2017

Easter eggs are not all that have been breaking lately. Hearts have been broken, too, as the bromance of the century ends.

Donald J. Trumpet and Vladdie “Rootin’ Tootin’” Putin called it quits after a relationship that lasted less time than that of Aaron Rodgers and Olivia Munn but certainly longer than Britney Spears’ first marriage.

“There is a low level of trust between our countries,” Secretary of State “Sexy Rexy” Tillerson, the John Forsythe of our 1980s nighttime soap opera, noted somberly after meeting with the Russians. ...