So, Joe Biden is running. I’m somewhat surprised – I thought he might feel that his family couldn’t take the stress and drama of a campaign so soon after the death of his son. I’m sure he and his family were torn about the decision.

I like Biden. Despite him having to constantly remove his foot from his mouth. Or maybe because of it.

Not sure yet where he’ll fall in the Hilary/Bernie dynamic in terms of voter support. I’d vote for him over Hilary.

The race just got a little more interesting.

The recent presidential debate gave us a chance, finally, to see all the Democratic candidates on the same stage, defining their positions and their differences. Although I’m pretty sure already who I’m voting for, I’m not sure it was possible to declare a clear debate winner. If you viewed this as an undecided, which I’ve tried to some extent to do, Hillary was good but clearly well-rehearsed while Sanders was himself but not rock solid. The other three candidates, Chafee, Webb, and O’Malley, had their strengths and weaknesses in varying measure. But there was no big moment, no knockout punch. I came away thinking that adherents of different flavors of “left” would come to different conclusions about who did best.

But although there was no decisive victory for any one candidate, the debate gave us a chance to look at some options, displaying more diversity than might have been expected among five members of the same political party. To our benefit, this played out in some marked differences of opinion and a few strange bedfellows.