Well, it looks as if the makeover has begun.

Corrupt Joe Biden, who used his office to enrich himself and his family, to say the least, is now the foreign policy maven, particularly on China.  That's the spin from the New York Times, which has beclowned itself badly, trying to tell the audience that something smelly is shinola. 

To voters unsettled by President Trump's disruptive approach to the world, Mr. Biden is selling not only his policy prescriptions but also his long track record of befriending, cajoling and sometimes confronting foreign leaders — what he might call the power of his informal diplomatic style. "I've dealt with every one of the major world leaders that are out there right now, and they know me. I know them," he told supporters in December.

Brett McGurk, a former senior State Department official for the campaign against the Islamic State, said Mr. Biden had been an effective diplomat by practicing "strategic empathy."

And unlike Trump, Biden was oh, so personal, as well as "not an ideologue."

Mr. Biden made a quick "personal connection" with the Chinese leader, even if he sometimes confounded his Mandarin interpreter by quoting hard-to-translate Irish verse, said Daniel Russel, an aide present at several of the meetings.

"He was remarkably good in getting to a personal relationship right away and getting Xi to open up," Mr. Russel said.

Had enough?  The translation, according to Peter Schweizer's Profiles in Corruption is as follows:

For Vice President Joe Biden, effective diplomacy was about forming personal relationships with foreign leaders. "It all gets down to the conduct of foreign policy being personal." The vice president had a series of important and tense meetings with Chinese officials on a variety of critical matters in the bilateral relationship. The trip coincided with an enormous financial deal that Hunter Biden's firm, Rosemont Seneca, was arranging with the state-owned Bank of China. What Hunter did during the official visit to Beijing we cannot know for sure. Other than a few photo ops with his father, he was nowhere to be seen. 

...and...

Approximately ten days after the Beijing trip, Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca Partners finalized a deal with the Chinese government worth a whopping $1 billion. The deal was later expanded to $1.5 billion. As of this writing, the fund's website says its investments amount to more than $2 billion.  

It's important to note that this deal was with the Chinese government--not with  Chinese company, which means that the Chinese government and the son of the vice president were now business partners.

Now he's Mr. Congeniality, the perfect opposite of President Trump who confronts China rather sternly on issues.  To the Times, that's a bad thing.  To the average "hey fat" out in the American heartland, as Biden puts it, Trump's diplomacy is actually standing up for the interests of Americans.

It's also a disgusting double standard.  Trump is no China-hater — he does his best to cut the best deal possible for main street America by driving a hard bargain the Chinese know they have no choice but to accept.  Any time Trump says something conciliatory to the Chinese, it's denounced as sucking up to dictators, while any time Joe does it — pocketing the profits, which any non-ideologue is adept at doing — he's Mr. Personality.

As Mickey Kaus well observed:

When Trump does it it's coddling dictators, with Biden it's Strategic Empathy! @michaelcrowley is at least a bit skeptical. https://t.co/Pnc9SqxAk4

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) July 6, 2020

Here's the problem with this kind of "personal" diplomacy.  It is very personal indeed to Joe, given the wealth it has brought is family members.  It's also very dangerous, given that every string and hook China's oligarchs can get into him makes him an even bigger sock puppet than he already was.  Combine with the world's dodgiest players considering Biden a non-entity (Osama bin Laden considered Biden a fool), and the picture is a very ugly one for America's interests. 

Here's the second problem: this apparent media makeover for Joe, painting him as the great personal-touch diplomat who can get along with everyone, is clearly the new party line being promoted in the press, and we can expect to see lockstep echoing of this embarrassing face-lift.  The JournoList talking points have gone out, and now the shots are fired.  As those shots went out, attempting to boost Joe while taking down Trump, the Chicoms themselves have been very active, too.  Just days ago, according to a report in the Daily Caller, the Chinese investment firm that made Hunter a very rich man has quietly removed Hunter's name as a board member.  That's to help Joe win his presidential bid, for sure, which ought to make voters wary, given whose interests are being boosted.  Worse still, the Caller reports, they allowed him to keep his sizable stake in the company — worth millions, at least.  No wonder he's comfortably ensconced in the Hollywood Hills these days, bored and playing "artist," dodging release of his financial statements to an Arkansas judge over a baby daddy case with a stripper looking for child support.  No wonder he apparently settled with the woman and swept the whole thing off the front pages.

Now the makeover is on, with the media ignoring the pocket-lining entirely — the New York Times makes simply no mention of it — and the cash spigots still going. 

The whole thing — pocket-lining and media cover-up is a disgusting double-load of corruption that anyone with a brain can see right through.  The GOP must keep the heat onto this issue because it's being distorted beyond recognition.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of images by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0, Acaben, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0, PxFuel public domain, and SKopp via Wikimedia Commons // public domain