Formal definitions of the word “politics” focus on high-minded concepts like “affairs of state” and “governance” and “diplomacy.” Nones call it a game, but that’s exactly what the presidential campaign is these days.

It’s a game to duck scrutiny and divert attention. It’s a game to tell half-truths and define what’s normal. And, last week, it was a game to see which candidate could be the first to call the other a bigot.

The game also involved the New York Times stooping to a new low. Its warped decisions about what qualifies as news suggests there are no limits to how far the paper will go to elect Hillary Clinton and bury Donald Trump.

Clinton needs all the help she can get. The week started with her in yet another sinkhole of corruption and lies over her emails, family foundation and even top aide Huma Abedin.

Nixonian in her stonewalling and Clintonesque in her deception, Clinton claims transparency even as she boards up the windows and triple-locks the doors. Among other things, we learned she used BleachBit, a digital scrubber that boasts it “tirelessly guards your privacy,” on her personal server to make sure even the FBI couldn’t see what she didn’t want it to see.

Her unbridled chutzpah was predictable, but so was Trump’s inadvertently helping her, as he did by creating new confusion over his immigration policies. His decision to soften his deportation plan was inevitable, but amateurish execution took the spotlight off Clinton and put it back on himself.

The end result was that Clinton turned what should have been a big advantage for Trump into a modest one for herself. It was more proof that the race isn’t about the issues, the past, the future or even the facts.

It’s ultimately about the game, and Clinton plays it better. It certainly helps that she and her clan have been wiggling out of public jams born of chronic dishonesty for decades.

Her most recent trouble began with the revelation by Paul Sperry in last Sunday’s Post that Abedin had been an editor for 12 years at a journal that trashed America and Jews and supported Sharia law.

Sperry did more than revive the debate about Abedin’s mother’s Islamist links. He tied Abedin directly to the ideology, and nailed Clinton for a wishy-washy speech in 2010 to Saudi women in which she never addressed female rights, but did issue warnings about American prejudice.

Then came another bombshell — the Associated Press report that more than half of the private individuals Clinton met with as secretary of state were major donors to the Clinton Foundation or affiliated groups. The pay-to-play stench swept the nation, except at the Times, which didn’t find anything fit to print. Disgraceful.

Then yet another bombshell hit. The FBI had found 15,000 more work-related emails Clinton did not turn over to the State Department, despite court orders, and some reportedly relate to Benghazi.

Clinton’s campaign rushed to the barricades to lob parsing duds. They tried to confuse the issue and claimed the AP’s math was wrong. As for the emails, they said there was nothing to hide, even though they went to extraordinary lengths to hide them.

When that didn’t completely calm the waters, Clinton, who avoids the press like the plague, phoned in to two friendly TV shows, on CNN and MSNBC, and allowed that, while there was lots of smoke, there was no fire.

Translation: It looks like I’m crooked, but you can’t prove it. That sums up her response to ­everything she does — if it’s not obviously criminal, it’s not wrong.

Her sole interaction with reporters covering her was to offer them chocolate while ignoring their questions.

Her next diversion aimed at countering Trump’s outreach to black voters, who are crucial to her chances. She unleashed a web ad and speech calling Trump a bigot and tying him to the KKK.

It was fear-mongering and dishonest, but good enough for the Times, which took her cue and added its own loaded spin. Over the weekend, it had a headline declaring that Trump “repels minority voters,” then upped the ante.

Again, a headline left no ambiguity: “ ‘No Vacancies’ for Blacks: How Donald Trump Got His Start, and Was First Accused of Bias,” it shouted.

The opening anecdote was about a black woman being turned away from a Trump apartment — in 1963. Donald Trump was just 17, and his father was running the business.

Somewhere, Hillary Clinton is cackling.

Blas blows ‘finest’ moment

The late Israeli statesman Abba Eban once said of Palestinians that they “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” The same could be said about Bill de Blasio.

The mayor had a chance to speak up for the NYPD and try to repair his broken relationship with the Finest. Instead, he went silent when support would have helped him and the cops.

The issue is the nitpicking, second-guessing report of NYPD Inspector General Philip Eure, who set out to discredit the department’s surveillance of terror suspects and radical political groups.

He failed because the facts weren’t there, but his fishing did net minnows that Eure hailed as big catches. Bull.

He found that investigators followed all legal guidelines for selecting surveillance suspects and articulated the reasons to gain department approval.

What probers didn’t always do was complete paperwork on time, or get permission to continue surveillance past allotted limits. The big whoop was that over half the operations extended beyond the initial deadline — by an average of just 22 days.

Although the authorizations eventually were obtained, Eure insisted that the “failure . . . cannot be discounted as merely technical or administrative.”

But that’s exactly what they were — technical. Eure should get a life, or a real job.

Imagine if he applied the same test to the Mayor’s Office, or the City Council, which created Eure’s sinecure. Neither would have shined like the NYPD.

Or imagine if de Blasio had said what I just did. In fact, he couldn’t be bothered to say peep. He didn’t hail the police, or ask if Eure had nothing better to do. He went on vacation.

But that didn’t stop him from making a statement about another burning New York issue — the peace agreement in Colombia. He gushed that the city “celebrates” the tentative pact.

At least we know where his heart is, and isn’t.

Fast lane to cyclist deaths

Having lured bike riders into street traffic where they don’t belong, city officials profess themselves shocked that more cyclists are being killed in accidents.

Naturally, their solution is to double down on their foolishness. They’ll build more dangerous bike lanes and continue to ignore bikers who ignore safety laws.

More rider deaths will follow. Count on it.

LaG’s really in a ‘fix’ now

The ballyhooed renovation of LaGuardia Airport is already bringing results — massive traffic jams, missed flights and leaky ceilings.

Which proves, again, that it’s wise to worry when the government threatens to help.