Wow. What a speech!

Upbeat, inspirational, memorable.

Wait. You thought I was talking about the president’s weird address to a sprinkling of masked members of Congress? Nope. Too many cliches. Too much pandemic theater. Way too much of Biden’s trademark cringiness.

I’m talking about Sen. Tim Scott’s rebuttal. A terrific oration.

Scott’s speech was smart, heartfelt and the perfect antidote to Biden’s tedious litany of far-left ideas that expand government and raise taxes.

As the senator from South Carolina tells it, his family went from “cotton to Congress” in 94 years. Scott’s personal story is warm without being smarmy like Biden’s. By opening his address with a salute to single mothers, Scott signaled an acceptance of the many iterations of the evolving American family.

You want to know just how good Scott is, just how fearful the left is of an African American Republican?

The Washington Post on Friday ran a pre-emptive hit piece on Tim Scott to discredit him before he gave the GOP response to Biden’s state-of-the-union-lite address. It was headlined, “Tim Scott Often Talks About His Grandfather and Cotton. There’s More To That Tale.” 

Using the thinnest gruel gleaned from hundred-year-old census records and deeds the Post claimed that  some of Scott’s ancestors owned land in South Carolina after the end of the Civil War, which was rare for black Americans. It is implied, of course, that the Scotts were privileged and didn’t share in the black American experience.

Scott’s memorable line, “America is not a racist nation,” is not what the left wants to hear. Scott’s uniquely American success story is not one they want to celebrate, either.

Unafraid to play small ball, The Post’s Glenn Kessler took issue with Scott’s recollection that his grandfather couldn’t read and write, claiming that records show his grandfather’s signature on his draft card.

Pathetic and petty.

All of this digging into the genealogy of a black member of the U.S. Senate seems like overkill. Until you realize what is happening: The Post is trying to take out a black man who is seen as being a future leader of the GOP. How can this be the party of white supremacists if one of their rising stars is African American?

Kessler, the Post’s fact-checker who catalogued all of Donald Trump’s misstatements, announced that after 100 days he will stop counting Biden’s lies.

Looks like he’s now going to turn his attention to politicians of color who happen to stray from the Democratic plantation.