Biden no phony

The Acela train takes about an hour and 15 minutes to reach Wilmington from Washington's Union Station.

Joe Biden, United States senator, often shares that ride with his friend Arlen Specter, United States senator.

I've often wondered about their commuting ritual: Do the two distinguished gentlemen alternate by trip which one of them gets to talk for the entire 75 minutes?

Biden and Specter are two loquacious sons of guns. Once either gets going, it's hard to imagine the other fellow getting a word in edgewise.

What saves these two from fulfilling every cliché about windy senatorial pomposity is this: Each is smart as all get out, with a mischiveously droll sense of humor.

Now that Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for vice president, the party's obsessive fretters worry that his legendarily loose lips will emit some gaffe that will help John McCain snatch the presidency.

Biden surely has had some slap-your-forehead moments in front of microphones, from his long-ago cribbing of a British politician's stump speech to his more recent description of Barack Obama as "clean" and "articulate."

Yet, I come to praise the Delaware Democrat, not bury him beneath the detritus of old blunders. Consider two things:
First, politics' indiscriminate focus on gaffes has become tiresome and dumb. Running for president requires uttering millions of words in public — a realm that has radically expanded in the age of YouTube and undercover bloggers. Some of those words are bound to be cranky or ill-advised.

Gaffes happen. When they do, ask: Was this just a bad moment in a long day, or does it speak to a larger pattern of behavior or thought? Partisans from the other team will always insist an oral slip-up reveals a dark recess in the candidate's soul.

The fair-minded will ask: Is there any evidence that the obnoxious words reflect a settled inner view or habitual flaw? Or were they just a matter of fatigue letting gremlins out of their cage?

George Allen's "macaca" riff during a Virginia senate race in 2004 hurt him grievously because, when critics scoured his past, they found too much "there, there." With Biden, there's scant reason to regard his Obama comment, or his wisecrack about Indians and Dunkin' Donuts, as a symptom of a deeper bigotry.

Second, as journalist Michael Kinsley once said, in politics a "gaffe" often means someone inadvertently spoke truth. American politics is a machine for punishing the utterance of uncomfortable facts. Joe Biden is one of the most candid, intellectually honest politicians I've met. So of course he gets into trouble.

When I was editorial page editor of this paper, I had regular chances to talk with Biden — OK, OK, listen to him talk — in free-ranging sessions.

Here's what I relish about the guy: He's the rare politician who will think out loud in public. He'll admit doubts about his own best guesses on policy, voice logical objections to what he just said, makes jokes on himself. This is what gets him into trouble, and gives some Democratic agita.

This is also what makes me think he'd be a fine vice president. He's not phony or full of himself; he's no sycophant.

Many politicians are hollow men, with a shiny carapace of smooth statements and boundless self-esteem. Inside, you'll find no touchstone values, no self-knowledge.

Joe Biden, tested hard by personal tragedy, is not a hollow man. He is thoughtful and funny — less buttoned-up than the average politician, thus more interesting.

Americans tell pollsters that they want leaders to be regular folks. Then our political culture proceeds to punishe anyone who shows any authenticity or quirkiness. In those cases, is the fault the candidate's, or is it ours?

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