Lots of smiles….
Good times…
A distarction from the woes Joe Biden and Democrats seem to have….
Ah, the Good Ole days?
He paused as the crowd laughed. And then, perhaps trying to cover up a mistake, assured the crowd, “That was a joke. That was all set up.” (Obama aide Eric Schultz, seated in the back, shrugged that he didn’t know whether it was a mistake or a planned quip.)
Either way, Obama started again, this time referring to the president as “my brother, Joe Biden.”
Democrats have been weighed down of late by the heavy themes of war in Europe, a persistent global pandemic, rising gas costs and plummeting approval numbers. Their own strategists are predicting heavy losses in November’s elections.
But on Tuesday, Obama’s reemergence brought moments of levity — as well as, perhaps, good memories, when the party had catapulted the country’s first Black president to the White House, an inspirational figure who enacted a universal health-care law. That law has proved popular in the long run even if divisive in the short term, perhaps a trajectory envisioned by the current administration….
…
Masks were mostly dropped. Obama waded deep into the crowd, freely distributing hugs. Nobody matched the enthusiasm of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who held Obama’s hand, then pulled it close and planted a kiss on it. Pelosi had been instrumental in the passage of the ACA.
Even Biden appeared a bit buoyed, at one point physically grabbing Obama’s shoulder to guide him toward a member of the crowd.
The fete was supposed to be held outside in the Rose Garden, but storm clouds and rain sent festivities inside.
“It’s good to be back in the White House,” Obama said, with his signature deliberate cadence. Despite the fact that he lives in a mansion in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood, about two miles from the White House, he hadn’t been invited there for a public event until now.
image…Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post