Michael Kinsley famously defined a gaffe as a politician saying something that is true. If that's so, then Joe Biden gaffed spectacularly on Sunday in suggesting that Barack Obama would face some type of international crisis shortly after his election.
The point is rather obvious. We would have an untested President coming from the - use the word that you want - less aggressive wing of American politics. There is every reason to believe that he would flinch and it's likely that someone will try to find out.
But Biden's statement that Obama will need his supporters' "help" because it intitially will not be evident that "we're right" is just odd. How can he know how they will respond to an undefined crisis and whether how that response will initially be perceived? Is he signalling that Obama plans a staunchly internationalist and less muscular approach to foreign threats? It's either that or more of Biden's peculiarity.
And we're supposed to be worried about Sarah Palin.