Nearly all political dramas hinge on the triangulations and moral hiccups required to get elected, to win. With the current presidential races promising months of don’t-touch-that-dial entertainment, David Mamet would be forgiven for turning his barbed pen to that tried, true, and topical plot device. Instead, with his sneaky and scabrously funny “November,” he has crafted a gimlet-eyed parable of losing, of resignation — not the Nixon-on-the-lawn flameout variety, but the subtler, quieter type. Rest assured that the words “subtler” and “quieter” will not appear again in this review. Because President Charles H.P. Smith, Mr. Mamet’s exorbitantly incompetent commander in chief, is played by Nathan Lane, who once again shows himself to be Broadway’s most fearless and unerring stage comedian on a decibel-for-decibel level. And “November,” which frequently stops to allow its leading man yet another delusional aria (“Well, who’s to say what’s perjury?”), is primarily a salty sitcom with political garnish, less “The West Wing” and more “Benson.” (One of that show’s co-stars, Ethan Phillips, plays an exasperated turkey-industry lobbyist.)

Mr. Mamet seems to draw particular satisfaction out of yoking his inimitably demotic voice to this far more traditional style, and director Joe Mantello — who let Mr. Lane’s and Matthew Broderick’s shtick torpedo the 2005 “Odd Couple” revival — keeps his cast orbiting around Mr. Lane with commendable restraint.

President Smith’s gravitational orbit, however, may be winding down: With the election only days away, the one-term Republican’s polling numbers are currently “lower than Gandhi’s cholesterol,” as one visitor tactfully puts it. Smith’s only solution, as he sees it, is to shake down that turkey lobbyist (Mr. Phillips) for $200 million, threaten a chief of the Micmac nation, attempt to turn pork and/or tuna into the new traditional Thanksgiving fare, preside over the same-sex marriage of his indispensable speechwriter (the priceless Laurie Metcalf), and unruffle diplomatic feathers with Israel: “Look, you people got along without a country for 2,000 years, all right? You’re gonna be fine.” (You can assume that virtually all “November” quotes contained herein have been purged of a few vintage Mametian four- and 12-letter words.)

Mr. Mamet’s screenplay for “Wag the Dog,” with its nefarious White House fabrications, is the obvious forebear to “November.” But 1988’s “Speed-the-Plow” seems to me to be the closer analogue. Remembered primarily as an unlikely Broadway vehicle for the then-huge Madonna, “Speed-the-Plow” holds up 20 years later as one of Mr. Mamet’s sharpest and most unsparing works. Both it and “November” take place in the protagonist’s office over the course of one day. (The earlier play being a Madonna project in the 1980s, it also included a bedroom scene.) And each presents a protagonist who must put his clout behind one of two ventures: a blatantly cynical one, proposed by a nattily dressed Machiavel, or a noble one, represented by a woman who comes in for verbal abuse as a direct result of her unshakable idealism.

This time, an underutilized Dylan Baker provides the silky malevolence as Smith’s consigliere Archer Brown, while Ms. Metcalf brims with ferociously well-reasoned conviction as the speechwriter Clarice Bernstein. (Michael Nichols rounds out the cast capably as the wronged Micmac chief.) Clarice, who has just returned from adopting a baby girl overseas, appears to have contracted Chinese avian flu. This sets everyone on edge, particularly the two turkeys awaiting a televised presidential pardon. But Ms. Metcalf’s stage-savvy bout of what appears to be walking triple pneumonia in no way overshadows her blend of exasperation, fury, and begrudging affection toward her boss, and it is this combination that gives “November” enough emotional momentum to skate over its hoarier passages.

Because, to be honest (honesty being a rare quality in the Smith administration), Mr. Mamet has struck similar notes with greater variation and spontaneity in previous outings. As the Gandhi joke above demonstrates, the plotting often gives way to a Borscht Belt style that comes a bit too easily to the author. But if anyone on Broadway can pull off this sort of material, it’s Mr. Lane. Dangling offers and hurling threats like a Tammany Hall alderman, Smith stands to leave the Oval Office (replicated with witty fidelity by set designer Scott Pask) with either his head held high or his pockets full. Mr. Lane’s patented blend of lovable loutishness keeps the audience guessing—and laughing, as he dispenses profane nuggets of Mametian wisdom with pedantic cluelessness. “Everyone wants something,” he explains to Clarice. “The power. To trade this for that separates us from the lower life forms, like the monkeys, or the Scandinavians.”

As “The Ritz” demonstrated with brutal clarity this season, madcap farce is not Mr. Mantello’s forte as a director. But when he hasn’t been concerned with getting Actor A through Door B before Actor C completes Compromising Position D, he has repeatedly drawn heartfelt performances from his comic actors, especially the ones on the periphery. Much of “November” involves Archer and Clarice reacting to Smith’s impeachable antics, and Mr. Mantello gives Mr. Baker and Ms. Metcalf just enough material to kindle the oxygen-sucking brush fire that is Nathan Lane.

Will that be enough to lure audiences from that evening’s primary/debate/caucus/roundtable/postmortem on TV? Well, who’s to say what’s enough? Leave that to the lower life forms, like the monkeys, or the politicians.

Open run (243 W. 47th St., between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, 212-239-6200).