Biden radiates decency and may be able to go distance

Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren are the shiny objects.

Joe Biden just may be the keepsake that endures.

The other two went at it last Thursday, quarreling over the meaning and morality of a wine cave, in an exchange that distilled the Democratic primary’s broader tension between pragmatism and purity, compromise and idealism. Biden was careful not to be drawn too far into it and, during other stretches of the debate, stood back.

Why wouldn’t he? For all the worry because he sometimes stutters, for all the concern because he occasionally sputters, for all his corny locutions (“malarkey”) and reflexive conversation fillers (“here’s the deal”), the former vice president has almost consistently maintained a lead over his Democratic rivals in national polls since he announced his candidacy last April. He has recently gained ground in Iowa, the state that votes first, meaning that he may avoid what had been looking like a candidacy-imperiling embarrassment there.

He has survived salvos from critics and messes of his own that were supposed to halt or at least hobble him: the attention to his crossing-the-line physicality with women; the flip-flop about public funding of abortions; the back-and-forth with Kamala Harris about busing; the moment at the fifth Democratic primary debate when he seemed to forget either that she was in the Senate or that she was black.

All of that supposedly made him look weak. But none of that appreciably weakened him.

And at the latest debate, he performed better — which may not be saying a lot but is saying something. He still can’t speak in a straight line, instead zigging and zagging. But Biden, 77, seemed more relaxed and confident, and he radiated his trademark warmth. It’s difficult not to like him. And it’s time to give him his due.

So many of us haven’t, and I’m as guilty as anyone. In past columns I urged him not to run — citing his unsuccessful previous presidential bids, his age, his eccentricities and his outright flaws — and doubted his ability to go the distance. I joined other pundits and political analysts in treating Biden’s front-runner status as fictive or inevitably fleeting and as the bequest of simple name recognition. But journalists may not have the right antenna for how this is playing out.

I maintain serious reservations about him. Thirty-six years in the Senate and eight in the vice presidency add up not just to enormous experience but also to a sprawling record that’s a gold mine for detractors.

But on Thursday night, Biden reasserted the fundamental generosity of spirit that separates him from Trump and is like a tall, cold glass of water to Americans thirsty for decency. “I refuse to accept the notion, as some on this stage do, that we can never, never get to a place where we have cooperation again,” he said, making a pitch for bipartisanship. “If that’s the case, we are dead as a country. We need to be able to reach a consensus. And if anyone has reason to be angry with the Republicans and not want to cooperate, it’s me — the way they’ve attacked me, my son and my family.”

He got fresh reason during the debate, when Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary, sent out a tweet that ridiculed his stutter. She deleted it — and apologized — after he asked her where her empathy had gone, a question I assumed was rhetorical. It died on the altar of Trump, where too many other Republicans sacrificed their principles, too.

Biden glows in comparison. He almost looks shiny.