Amid the paroxysms of reminiscence about Walter Cronkite, one must reflect on his role as a skilled news reader.  As such, he was an elocutionary paragon, less actor than salesman. 

Where is there a salesman who would not have done anything for his on-air sincerity and avuncular integrity?  He was Uncle Walter, in the right place at right time to become one of our many icons, a sort of household god such as the old Romans kept on their mantle, someone to turn to at dinnertime five days a week to find out how things were. 

Yay Walter, he’s our man; if he can’t convince us what to think, nobody can! was our shout-out, lo these many years ago.

Forty years ago, Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island after a party, submerging the car.  He managed to get out, but not his companion.

It was here where Kennedy’s true nature came about. He claimed he called out for [Mary Jo] Kopechne several times and rested for fifteen minutes until deciding to walk back to the party. On his walk back to the party, he passed several houses with telephones but he did not summon help.

He eventually fell asleep in a hotel room and later woke up but did not immediately contact the police, but instead had a casual conversation with someone about sailing. It was not until after the dead body of Kopechne had been discovered that Kennedy went to a police station. [Italics added]

A bona fide Kopechne tragedy became in due time a spurious “Kennedy tragedy,” one of many.  And whom can we thank for that?

This fellow has Biden’s number:

It takes years of yoga to learn the posture necessary for speaking clearly with all your feet in your mouth. But for some the skill comes naturally, which brings us to Joe Biden.

Those who saw Dick Cheney as an evil genius crouched silent in the shadows of the Oval Office like Nosferatu must enjoy Biden’s high profile: he’s out there daily with the sunny enthusiasm of Ronald McDonald opening another store.

And, quite often, telling everyone to have a Whopper.

It’s James Lilek in NY Post.  Can’t remember when I’ve read anything that good in a Chicago newspaper, unless Kass and before him Royko.  Any other suggestions?  I might have missed someone.

Explaining one of the “gaffes,” he says:

What Biden meant to say, in his puckish way, that they misunderstood what an economy is, and how it works. Piling up a mountain of proposed taxes, mandates, regulations, do-nothing programs and pork unseen in such dimensions since Pink Floyd floated a dirigible pig over an outdoor concert might, in fact, prevent recovery.

Yes.  They have the formula for that.  In any case, go easy on Joe, by whom “truer words have never been babbled.”