The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

Yes, malarky

Joe Biden, good guy. (Chicago Tribune)

In his acceptance speech last night, Joe Biden showered a torrent of malarky on Americans who thirst for a President Nice Guy.

For a candidate whose campaign once pledged “no malarky,” Biden’s appeal to empathy and goodness was beyond malarky. It was drivel and hogwash.

Bucketfuls of “abiding humanity and racial inclusivity” and “decency” poured forth. “Compassion is on the ballot,” Biden himself read. Ugliness and viciousness are on the run.

As I listened, I wondered why kind and loving are the most important qualities of a good president. Abraham Lincoln, ugly and ungainly, wasn’t elected because he was a swell guy. Can you name a president who’s greatest virtue was being simpatico? Maybe Jimmy Carter, but you saw how he turned out.

Biden’s critics, of course, jumped on him and the entire of theme of the Democratic National Convention for lacking “substance.” But the critics are wrong. He has no substance, so what could he say? Trying to straddle the middle and the far left, he did the splits.

But more important, he’s not searching for voters who support a candidate because of his positions, policies and issues. For Biden’s script writers, emotion–not rational discussion–is the touchstone.

Trump, as I’ve said, is a jerk. But he does stuff. He acts. Much of what he has done has worked. You might not like what he does–and I won’t call you something nasty if you don’t–but he’s upfront about it. Biden, well, not so much. He’s an empty vessel, waiting for whatever concoction will be poured in.

For those who surely know that President Donald Trump is evil incarnate, I might suggest a proverb: “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” Oh, but surely, Biden is no devil. He’s a nice guy, a good man.

For me, this con says it best:

“I wyll neuer bye the pyg in the poke
Thers many a foule pyg in a feyre cloke”