I love Joe Biden. I think he's a thoughtful and kind man who was one of the greatest Vice President's our nation has ever seen, and despite his penchant for the occasional gaffe, I think he would have made an excellent president. That's not to say that he's without his flaws. His handling of the Anita Hill allegations against Clarence Thomas in 1991 were a disaster, and he essentially allowed Thomas to skate past very real claims of sexual harassment all the way to the Supreme Court. But unlike many politicians, Biden has always been an empathetic man, who has grown from his mistakes. In fact, following that horrible handling of the Anita Hill situation, Biden grew into a staunch defender of women's rights, first shepherding the Violence Against Women Act through the Senate, and then leading the Obama administration's fight against sexual assault on college campuses. He's what we want all politicians to be: honest. Caring. Willing to learn and improve. Essentially the inverted funhouse mirror version of our current president.

So imagine my disappointment when I woke up to find headlines about Joe Biden "slamming" Hillary Clinton. The stories all came from the fact that Biden said at a conference: "I never thought she was a great candidate." And look, that's a shitty quote. Why do that, Joe? What's to be gained? Why kick Hillary when she's down and when the nation's down, and why divide the Democratic party further? In short, what the hell are you doing, Joe? But, I didn't want to jump to conclusions, so I found a longer version of what Biden said at this conference over on CNN, and you know what, these headlines are bullshit.

First the context. After being asked whether he would consider running in 2020 (His answer: Probably not, but maybe), and talking about how he chose not to run in 2016 due to family tragedy, this exchange happened. Via CNN:

Biden, who decided against running for the Oval Office in 2016 due to the death of his son, was asked at what point he realized Hillary Clinton was the correct candidate. "I never thought she was a great candidate. I thought I was a great candidate," he said. But Biden stressed that he believed that "Hillary would have been a really good president."

Huh. Interesting what a few extra words can do. Maybe this interpretation is generous, but that doesn't read like "slamming" or "dissing" or "trashing," does it? It sounds an awful lot like a guy who wanted the presidency, who planned on running for the presidency, and who thought he could win the presidency, looking at Donald Trump, and thinking (not necessarily incorrectly) that he could have beaten that guy. As for the "insult," Biden is just saying what everyone says about Hillary Clinton. She's not the best campaigner in the world. Is that really a shock? He also said she would have been a really good president, but people leave that part out. Why? Because the mainstream media loves trashing Hillary Clinton. They love when other people trash Hillary Clinton. Anytime they can frame something as "(BLANK) trashed Hillary Clinton" that's exactly what they're going to do. And that's how you end up with stuff like this:

Joe Biden did what we want politicians to do. He gave an honest answer and he did it respectfully. He wasn't faux modest. He wasn't insulting to Hillary. He told us what he actually thought. Let's not discourage that by turning everything into the WWE. Donald Trump's already got that covered for us.