Blogging Biden: Talk Talk Talk

Joe Biden's greatest liability is what I find most appealing about him: his mouth. From threatening to "shove [a veto] down [the President's] throat" to calling Barak Obama the first "articulate" and "clean" African American Presidential candidate, Biden has repeatedly been caught out saying things that a candidate for the country's highest office just can't say.

He's taken his lumps for this. But he's not running away from or apologizing for this tendency. The other night he joked with John Stewart about "long-talkin' Biden," and later said that his mouth was the only thing in Delaware that the Biden's don't control. And he keeps talking. And talking.

Exhibit A: yesterday's interview with Tom Ashbrook of WBUR Boston's "On Point" radio program. If you've listened to Biden in the debates thus far, and if you've caught him on any of the talk shows, then this interview is nothing new; he's not saying things he hasn't said in those other places. But it's magic. It's not your standard stumping. It's a conversation. And most of his public speaking has that feel to it, which I find completely compelling.

I come away from listening to Biden knowing more about Iraq and health care and tax cuts than I did before. You don't just get Biden's stance on these things. You get their context and their nuances--things, unfortunately, that don't carry great weight in campaigns.

But I'm in.