Even while criticizing Barack Obama's running mate Joe Biden, the Times can't help praising him. John Broder's Friday "Political Memo," "Hanging On to Biden's Every [1]Word [1]," checked out the Delaware senator's history as a gaffe machine, but sweetened the astringent criticism with a foretaste of honey:
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, is an experienced, serious and smart man. But, boy, does he say some curious things. A day on the campaign trail without a cringe-inducing gaffe is a rare blessing. He has not been too blessed lately.
Will the Times ever use a similar lead sentence to describe Sarah Palin?
Broder collected some of Biden's past and present verbal stumbles:
Mr. Obama knew what he was getting when he picked Mr. Biden: A veteran of six terms in the Senate, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, an Irish Catholic with working-class roots, a guy who had twice been tested in the arena of presidential politics.
And a human verbal wrecking crew.
This is the fellow who nearly derailed his nascent presidential campaign last year by calling Mr. Obama "articulate and bright and clean," and who noted that a person needed a slight Indian accent to walk into a Dunkin' Donuts or 7-Eleven in Delaware, his home state.