Biden has left the solar system of truth

President Joe Biden has several verbal tics that are markers of his habitual effort to present himself, against all the evidence, as a straight shooter, a no-nonsense, ordinary guy who tells it like it is.

His numbingly repetitive invocation of “folks” in his State of the Union address to Congress is a prime example. The transcript on the White House website acknowledges that he said “folks” 19 times in 62 minutes. That’s nearly once every three minutes.