That was opportunistic on Lloyd Bentsen's part, for sure...and quite cruel too, but politics is a very cruel and dirty business. They are taught by their handlers how to be opportunists, how to conduct character asassination on others, and the ones with the sharpest killer instinct usually seem to do the best at the polls. Sarah Palin is said to have a pretty keen killer instinct herself by many people in Alaska. How Biden rates in that respect, I'm not exactly sure, but I bet they'll both be trying hard to embarrass the other in some fashion.

After all, sound bites and fleeting (if vague) impressions are everything in the modern American election campaign, aren't they? Or at least it seems that way if you watch the media.