OPINION:
Welcome to Shamelot.
It’s not quite the Kennedys, but it’s the best the Bidens can do.
The first family threw a wedding for their eldest granddaughter on the South Lawn for 250 guests over the weekend. Because nothing says “we feel your economic pain” like hosting a grand wedding at the taxpayer-funded White House.
See, when gas prices are this high, it is best to have your wedding at home. Suckers!
President Biden said there is nothing he needs to learn from the last election. He wasn’t kidding.
The paparazzi — also known as the “White House press corps” — was kept at bay by special fencing erected overnight around the Ellipse in front of the White House. In other words, walls are racist — except when they are not.
In any event, the special fencing meant there were no candid photos from the event. Also, since the Bidens are clearly not the Kennedys, nobody cared to try sneaking any pictures.
Shamelot ain’t Camelot.
Anyway, it being the Bidens, you don’t need the paparazzi to get the most intimate pictures imaginable. With this crowd, candid photos can be dangerous. Most decent folks tend to look away. We can catch all the pictures — properly blurred out — when they come out with the release of Hunter Biden’s next laptop.
The only photos to emerge from the dowdy affair were official White House snapshots. Most remarkable about the pictures was the president’s ability to refrain from sniffing the bride long enough to pose for pictures in the Rose Garden. That would be the Rose Garden beautifully redesigned by former first lady Melania Trump, who is fluent in five languages.
The current occupants of the White House struggle with one language. But, they say, the first lady is a doctor.
That’s why they have a vice president. Or, as Mr. Biden calls her, “the president.”
Kamelot-in-waiting.
The real news out of the White House this weekend was Mr. Biden’s birthday. He turned 80.
You thought he was old before. Just you wait.
America has cringed through the first two years of Mr. Biden’s presidency. Talking to ghosts. Shaking hands with thin air. Garbled sentences. Incomprehensible speeches.
Mr. Biden is the oldest president ever. And he is, as they say, a very old 80. So, one more birthday does not do the White House any political favors. Otherwise, they would have fully exploited it.
There was no Marilyn Monroe crooning “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” in a skintight dress and sultry voice. She is probably too old for him anyway.
Actually, Mr. Biden did learn one thing from the midterm elections, in which Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives. He learned that no matter how bad things are, sometimes you don’t lose as badly as you deserve.
The next day, Mr. Biden announced he plans to run for reelection. He will be 82. Even older.
As one Democrat in New Hampshire noted, Mr. Biden very well may be the Tom Brady of politics. Perhaps.
And perhaps that says more about the current state of the Democrat party than it does the current president. As bad as Mr. Biden may be, Democrats don’t have any better options.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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