Bubba and Slow Joe at the DNC

Can there be any remaining doubt that Bill Clinton is the most accomplished and brazen liar in the history of the United States of America? Could anyone who was watching be so naïve as to believe that he believed a single word that he said about Barack Obama, or about his own intentions to campaign for Obama?

(I skipped John Kerry. America skipped John Kerry.)

Beau Biden was terrific. He had a powerful, intensely personal story to tell about his father, one that's unimpeachable and moving, and he told it in dirt simple words molded into short sentences. His military bearing made up for adverbs and adjectives that a slicker speech would have contained, and the end result was just about perfect. (By sharp contrast, however, no one so far has done remotely as good a job making The One seem human.)

How could Obama's team pick, for inclusion in the video intro of Slow Joe, a statement from Obama that Biden's best quality is his honesty? If I may riff on the inestimable Mickey Kaus' joke (one which only makes sense if you already know a fair amount about Biden), Biden's honesty is a defining character trait he acquired as a child in the coal mines of Wales, from which he graduated at the top of his class.

As for Slow Joe's own speech: Meh. He didn't put on a Princeton cap. What we saw tonight will be pretty much what we'll see for the rest of the campaign. It's no better, nor any worse, than his campaign speeches and debate appearances in his own two runs for POTUS, in which he picked up exactly as many delegates as Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich (zero).