Yesterday, what’s-his-name — aka “the last guy” (ya know, the president Joe Biden served under) — finally emerged from the shadows to stump for his former second in command. With less than two weeks to go till Election Day, you might say that Barack Obama likes to play it close to the vest.
Much of what the former president had to say was an indictment of his successor, which is to be expected. It’s how he “rolls,” as he might say. But one particular portion of his tirade, in which he railed out at Donald Trump as a “crazy uncle” with a “lie every day,” suggested that maybe, like Biden, Obama’s own faculties aren’t quite as sharp as they once were.
Has he forgotten the reputation as “America’s crazy uncle” that Biden developed during his eight years a heartbeat away from the Oval Office? The Atlantic titled its assessment of the 2012 vice presidential debate “What Uncle Was Joe Biden Most Like?” writing:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Though the Internet has not universally declared a winner of the vice-presidential debate — unlike the way all of tweeting America agreed President Obama lost the presidential debate — one thing is clear in the aftermath: the only thing anyone cares about is Joe Biden and his crazy face.
“What are we going to do about Creepy Uncle Joe Biden?” the Washington Post wondered aloud in a 2015 send-up of his more avuncular moments.
Does Obama no longer recall that it was Biden, not Trump, who on the occasion of his signing of the Affordable Care Act whispered loud enough for press mics to pick up his voice, “This is a big f*cking deal.”
Obama must have been aware of the embarrassment Biden caused him. Even Biden had a sense of it, telling the then-president on the same occasion, “Mr. President, I’ve gotten to know you well enough that you want me to stop because I’m embarrassing you. But I’m not going to stop for another minute, Mr. President.”
