Joe Biden, like practically every Democratic Senator who’s spoken, noted that he’s friends with John McCain—fine. But isn’t the idea (not evident these days) that McCain is a maverick a big part of what all these Democrats liked and found friend-worthy about him? I wish Biden had taken a page from John Kerry and expressed more personal disappointment in his friend: “I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day I learn something new about candidate McCain,” as Kerry put it. Biden just mentioned his friendship with McCain and then went on to critique his policies, as though they were two unrelated things. Kerry was sharper.
--Eve Fairbanks