Presumably, his experience running with President Barack Obama and serving as an influential vice president (a job that absolutely requires people to learn to hold their tongues) will make him a better candidate. He’ll commit gaffes — otherwise it wouldn’t be Joe — but occasional loose talk will seem benign measured against Trump’s mean spirit and contempt for the truth.

A politician first elected in 1970 is not going to be the face of the future. But after the exhaustion, trauma and incompetence of the Trump years, voters will look for stability, solidity, maturity, global experience, civility and integrity. Biden checks all the boxes.

He’s a part of the moderate Obama-Clinton wing of the Democratic Party (though there’s no love lost between Biden and Bill and Hillary Clinton). But progressives acknowledge his genuine empathy for working-class Americans, and he’s liberal enough for them on social issues — it was Biden who forced Obama’s hand on supporting gay marriage.