Joe Biden is, naturally, saying he only meant that Barack Obama is a fresh new face. Unfortunately the problem he faces is that the nature of his gaffe--for those who assume the worst--can't be explained away. It's a less-extreme version of George Allen's macaca crack: Allen's defenders said it was ludicrous to consider "macaca" a slur and not, say, a meaningless goofy nickmame, because clearly no politician would slur someone in public even if he was thinking such vile thoughts. But the charge in that case, as in Biden's, is that it was the subconscious talking in some unintentionally revealing way. And no amount of spin or contrition can undo that. There's some blog talk that a missing comma may have exacerbated the offense. But I don't think that's the issue. The core problem is the use of the word "clean" to describe Obama, regardless of the broader context. (Some people have suggested Biden meant ethically clean, but I don't really buy that, either.) All that said, I'm not sure this should ruin Biden's presidential hopes. I do think it justifies extra scrutiny of his wider views and record on race (which I suspect are highly enlightened). It also renews the question of whether a man who shows such poor verbal discipline is fit for an office where one gaffe can have shock waves across the globe. --Michael Crowley