The other day, during the shutdown in Washington D.C., Biden and Obama went to lunch at a deli near the White House. It was a photo op, dreamed up by some underling public relations staff member. The idea was to patronize the restaurant that was giving furloughed federal workers a price break on their meals.

The intent of the imagery was obvious. Of course, what is lost is the fact the federal employees, those of the 20% of government actually shut down, are getting a paid vacation. To give them price breaks at a restaurant is frivolously absurd. We need only add that the Washington D.C. corridor has had the largest national rise in incomes and property values.

But what would a patriotic president have done on that day? Down at the other end of the mall sits the WWII memorial, the Vietnam memorial, and the Korean memorial, with the Iwo Jima memorial just across the river. A patriotic president might have gotten in his limo and traveled to each of those sites and ordered the barricades removed. Then, from his phone in the limo, he could have called the Normandy cemetreries and told them to reopen. And a quick trip over the Potomac to Arlington as well.

Now that would have been a photo op! But, alas, it seems certain that the thought never crossed this president's mind.