He is running to a large extent on his personal decency. My new Bloomberg Opinion column:
Again and again, Joe Biden’s supporters return to a common theme. Matthew Dallek writes that “in an era of nearly relentless nastiness, Biden exudes decency.” Former primary rivals Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke have been touting his decency, too. The anti-Trump Republicans at the Lincoln Project ran an ad about it. And Barack Obama said his former vice president “has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times.”
The candidate himself is not too modest to concur. After winning primaries in mid-March, Biden said, “Tonight we are a step closer to restoring decency, dignity and honor to the White House. That’s our ultimate goal.”
Political campaigns always involve a lot of exaggeration, but the mismatch between Biden’s character references and his actual character is particularly stark. . . .