Let There Be Joe

His mouth gets ahead of his brain. But Joe Biden's heart is the democrats' killer app

Marco Grob for TIME

As attack dogs go, Joe Biden is more chocolate Lab than Doberman pinscher. The Vice President will perform the traditional wet work assigned to presidential running mates, but never with the cold dispatch of his predecessors Dick Cheney and Al Gore. Like a great snuffling puppy, he can't help getting too enthusiastic. When he was a younger man, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was assigned the unpleasant task of eviscerating Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. His long-winded, half-apologetic, nonquestion questions left witnesses befuddled and had millions of Americans longing for a muzzle. More recently, set loose on Republicans...

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