Biden's comments about Putin were an unforced error

What Biden was doing, of course, was being Joe Biden. He was speaking for all of us, from the heart. One of the more endearing things about the president—at least for those of us who admire him—is that he has almost no inner monologue and regularly engages in the kind of gaffe where a politician says something that is impolitic but true.

This was not the time for such a moment, and even those who think Biden has exhibited sterling leadership during this crisis should admit that the president’s remarks were an unforced error. Putin has already made himself a pariah in the West, and though Biden has been right to call Putin a thug, a butcher, and a war criminal, it is another thing entirely to use language that could be misconstrued by both the American public and the Kremlin as a suggestion that United States is interested in changing the Russian regime.

Biden’s comment was poorly timed, too, because Russia’s high command seems to be preparing for a face-saving retrenchment in Ukraine. So far, the Russians seem to have taken Biden’s remarks more calmly than the American media. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, never one to miss a chance to castigate the United States, said only that this was a question for the Russian people, and not for Biden. The Russian people, of course, have no say in who rules them, but Peskov’s answer amounted to a shrug.