Joe Biden is not OK

One of the most reliable standards in international comedy has long been the outstanding ineloquence of American politicians. In this place I recently summoned up the golden memory of Dan Quayle. But if you look at the record, there was similar – far less justified – tittering at Ronald Reagan. Closer to our own time comedians and others had much fun with George W. Bush, Donald Trump and indeed almost everybody who has ever risen to the top of the Republican party.

Something striking about this is that rarely is there any similar tittering over the ineloquence of American politicians of the left. Fans of the Democratic party will say that this is because their party attracts a more cerebral type of candidate, and perhaps voter. Yet this ignores simple facts. For although the Democrats certainly can produce the occasional silver-tongued son of a gun (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama), they are at least as capable of producing people who approach the English language as though it were an assault course.