A quick thought about @JoeBiden, prompted by this @JRubinBlogger column: Biden ran for President twice before (in 1988 and 2008). He did badly; he wasn't an effective candidate. Now, I'm fond of saying that people don't reinvent themselves past a certain age (as Biden is). https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1288447709117132801

However, Biden started his first two races for the White House far from his goal (with a popular Republican in the White House in 1988; with better known and funded primary opponents in 2008). He ran as if he thought he would be a good President, and that should be enough.

Lots of unsuccessful Presidential candidates have thought exactly that. It helped make them unsuccessful. But now, in 2020, to come off as someone who could be a good President is an extremely valuable thing. All the skills needed to get through the absurdly long American....

....Presidential election process -- skills Bill Clinton & Barack Obama had in abundance -- are less important today. Biden has always struggled with message discipline; when you have to do five events a day, that can be a real campaign handicap. He has also always been....

....intelligent, thoughtful, empathetic; when he's briefed, he listens. Biden doesn't need to reinvent himself right now. The Presidency is in sight, and this vastly different campaign allows him to do the things he's good at while demanding fewer of the things he's not.

I understand and respect campaign skills. But past a certain point, they're not all that useful in government. New Presidents (the ones who care about doing right by the country, anyway) tend to find this out the hard way.

Biden already knows it. Some of the same qualities that would make him a better President are, by coincidence, bigger assets to his campaign than they would be ordinarily. In the midst of an awful year, that's a bit of good luck for the country. [end]