The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

Has Joe Biden become Chance the Gardener?

Chance the Gardner (not Chance the Rapper) is “A simpleminded, sheltered gardener [who] becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics.”

Chauncey, played by Peter Sellers, hardly knows where he is, so when the rich owner of the garden suddenly dies, Chance is a total loss without guidance. He dresses in the owner’s elegant clothes and starts wandering through the capital city.

Peter Sellers as Joe Biden?

The short of it: his off-handed remarks apropos of nothing are taken as great wisdom (where else but in Washington?) and soon, as a great sage, he is advising the United State president. When there’s nothing going on in his head.

Maybe it’s not fair to compare Biden to Chance, but the reality finally is settling in among Democrat Party overseers that the former vice president isn’t up to it, not when it comes to dealing with such national emergencies as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maybe a better comparison is Bernie Novaks, the dead-guy-walking in Weekend at Bernies who is propped up by a couple of goofs trying to fool everyone into thinking that Bernie is really alive.

Okay, okay, maybe that’s going too far. Just the kind of trash talk that you’d expect from a rabid right-winger, right? Except for this: Peter Bart, a Hollywood type, recently penned a piece comparing President Donald Trump to Chance the Gardener. (“The Trumpian Hero Of ‘Being There’ 40 Years Ago Built His Power Base On A Message He Never Understood.”)

Truth is stranger than fiction?

Den[email protected]

www.dennisbyrne.net

My historical novel: Madness: The War of 1812

Filed under:
Democrats, Elections

Tags:
Being There, Joe Biden, Peter Sellers, Weekend at Bernie’s