It’s kind of amusing to go back and read Obama partisans’ defenses of Biden in August 2008 (e.g., “The comparisons between Biden and Quayle seem way off. Biden has always been more outspoken, articulate, coherent, and respected than Quayle ever was”), and then read what Obama had to say (privately) about Biden a month later: “How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?” And didn’t Obama know about Biden’s reputation as a “gaffe-prone blowhard” before he selected him as vice-president? I don’t follow inside-D.C. politics very closely, and I knew.