apropos of anything

He held back during the debate. Pulled his punches. Swallowed the opportunities — and there were many — to point out that Sarah Palin was talking out of her derriere. And as a result, while he might have come off as more knowledgeable and more informed than Palin, while he might have been more comfortable with his answers and more able to actually respond to the questions asked, sometimes Joe Biden too came off looking a little coached.

But then at the end Ifill asked each candidate about their Achilles’ heel, and while I found Palin’s response characteristic of her detached, robotic, cue card-filled performance all night, Joe Biden went and did this:

…and he got me. Truly got me. That wasn’t Joe Biden sticking to the script, or following through with his coaching. That wasn’t Joe Biden being a politician. That was Joe Biden being Joe Biden, a man who has had to deal with some truly awful things and who I believe when he says he understands. And when he became a human and not a senatorial talking head, I thought, am I glad Barack Obama picked this man to be his vice president.

Oh, and also, I want to know what kind of parenting techniques Sarah Palin is applying when she allows her five-month-old to be used as a political prop instead of leaving him with a sitter or a relative so he can be asleep in his crib like all the other five-month-olds are at 11 p.m.