Obama is back in the White House with Biden, doing bromance fan service. But is it enough?

The boys got back together at the White House this week, ostensibly to celebrate and extend the Affordable Care Act — but also probably with another reason in mind

OBAMA-CASA BLANCA (AP)

Before President Joe Biden, there was Uncle Joe, the character created by The Onion during Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House. Uncle Joe was a goofy, relatable character who provided a foil to a staid and serious Obama; he wore torn Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirts, reminisced about the summer of ’87, and grabbed the mic during press conferences to opine on his favorite Wu-Tang Clan album. People loved Uncle Joe as a concept, so much so that when he ran for president, the creator of the parodies was accused of making him seem too relatable.

Presumably, a lot of the original humor of the Onion parody was based on the fact that Obama chose Biden as his running mate because he was seen as a “safe choice”, someone who had been in the Senate for over 30 years next to a relative newcomer. But it wasn’t entirely untrue that Biden was a live wire compared to the man he worked beside. Obama said of Biden that “we couldn’t have been more different,” positioning that as a bonus, when explaining why he chose Biden over someone more expected like Tim Kaine. Biden was warm, chatty and unfiltered, slightly gaffe-prone even then; Obama was more thoughtful and introspective. It was also universal truth, and remains so, that if you’re a person of color or a woman (or both) who runs for president, you have to have an old white man beside you so as not to spook the people we might charitably call traditionalists. Tim Kaine got his shot when Hillary Clinton ran in 2016.

But people fell for the Obama-Biden friendship in a big way. And it wasn’t just political types: everywhere from The Guardian to Grazia published stories on the seemingly adorable pair. Harper’s Bazaar published a 21-page gallery about Barack and Joe’s “epic bromance,” detailing their golfing trips, shared lunches at Shake Shack, attendance at basketball games together, and a close hug after they won their second term. There’s a lot of evidence that Biden and Obama knew about the world’s love for their love, and played up to it. In 2016, the official vice presidential account run by Biden (or at least his publicists) tweeted out a picture of two entwined friendship bracelets — one saying “JOE”, the other “BARACK” — with the note: “Happy 55th, Barack! A brother to me, a best friend forever.”

And there is something genuinely touching about the friendship. When Obama surprised Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2017 and Biden became overwhelmed with emotion, it would’ve taken a heart of stone not to be moved. Biden is the kind of man for whom America and its pageantry really does mean everything, a man who spent most of his life shuttling between Scranton, Delaware and DC. Obama gave him the best gift he could ever have received — until the country did one better and voted him president, of course.

Yet Obama was mostly silent during Biden’s presidential run, endorsing him late and staying out of the conversation when he was busy debating fellow Democrats. The world was hungry for more from the old bromance, back when politics felt a little simpler. And this week, Uncle Joe and Barack did some fan service.

Obama returned to the White House for the first time in five years to attend a healthcare event. He was there ostensibly because he was the original architect of the Affordable Care Act, which was being added to today (or “a glitch” was being “fixed”) by Biden. It was a mark of respect to invite Obama, and a publicity win for him to accept. The 46th president’s approval ratings are in need of a bit of a boost.

Obama opened with a good-natured joke, pretending to get Biden’s title wrong and referring to him as “vice president”. Lest the right seize on it as proof of some imaginary cognitive decline, he added: “That was a joke. That was all set up. My president, Joe Biden.” The two embraced.

Biden then launched into a speech about the importance of the ACA, which he charitably also referred to as “Obamacare”. As Kamala Harris and Obama stood to his left, he spoke of the reasons people go into politics, and the “sabotage” Republican colleagues have been trying to enact on the ACA for 12 years. Affecting a southern drawl, he said that they “haven’t changed a whole hell of a lot” in that time; he also gestured back to Obama and said, of putting together healthcare legislation, that “I got a little practice when you were president and I was with you.”

It was a short and unremarkable speech but the reigniting of the bromance onstage was the real win. “Barack, I’m gonna remind you it’s a hot mic,” Biden said at the end, as he progressed toward the executive order he was poised to sign. It was a gently self-deprecating reference to the time when he — Biden, that is — said on a hot mic that Obamacare was “a big f**king deal” in 2010. Back in 2022, he made another gentle joke about how “Barack Obama always signs his name using nine different pens,” used one pen to sign his own executive order, gave Obama a little fist-bump, hugged Nancy Pelosi and went on with his day.

Uncle Joe and Obama are back. But as Biden’s approval ratings plummet to 35 percent and the midterms loom on the horizon, a lot of Democrats are left wondering: Will they be enough?