Make sense of what matters most in Washington. | Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Biden Has Been Debating for Half a Century. Is He Any Good at It? By Philip Elliott Washington Correspondent, TIME Joe Biden had the final word that August day back in 1987, delivering the final closing remark on a crowded debate stage in Iowa. There was just one problem: his best lines were cribbed. Biden and his team recognized the error instantly and wrongly bet that his intentions mattered more than the offense, that his reputation would overpower any stench of sloppiness. Almost four decades later, that experience remains the