Biden is collapsing, and so is the Obama-era consensus

No one won the second night of this week’s Democratic debate in Detroit. But Joe Biden certainly lost.

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: Illustrated | JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images, Aerial3/iStock, Asya_mix/iStock)

No one won the second night of this week's Democratic debate in Detroit. But Joe Biden certainly lost.

During the course of an evening in which he received roughly double the speaking time of most of the other candidates, all of Biden's powers seemed to desert him. The first thing to fail was his folksy charm. "Go easy on me, kid," he told Kamala Harris as she entered the stage. She did not.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.