Someone in the White House must really hate Joe Biden.
Who had the stupid idea to invite his charismatic predecessor back to upstage the president and humiliate him before the world?
If the idea was to borrow the Barack Obama magic, it backfired. The president just looked feeble and unpopular against his limelight-hogging former boss.
Invited back to the White House for the first time in five years, Obama began his speech Tuesday touting the 12th anniversary of his Affordable Care Act by referring to the president as “Vice President Biden.”
He quickly followed up with “That was a joke!” but the point was understood by everyone, that Joe is the beta in that relationship, even if he is the most powerful man on the planet.
What does that make Obama?
Well, he mentioned himself 33 times during his speech, according to Steve Guest, communications adviser for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Obama sang his own praises as he rattled off a list of his presidency’s accomplishments.
There was little effort to burnish the battered reputation of the old man standing glumly alongside him trying to look jolly. Beside him, Vice President Kamala Harris was fairly bursting with excitement.
After the speech, the three luminaries mingled with the crowd, and that was where Obama showed his true colors.
In C-Span videos, you see Biden, quite cheery, glad-handing the crowd, Harris at his side, when suddenly, from stage left, emerges Obama, face creased into a handsome smile, eyeing the same group that Biden is schmoozing.