Everyone knows Vice President Biden's proclivity for gaffes. And pretty much everyone agreed--at the time--that something he said two Octobers ago was classic Biden:

It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama…. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

There's just one problem, writes The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus Thursday, on the anniversary of the utterance: if you look at the full transcript, Biden was right--not about the crisis, but about the big picture, and the kind of climate the Democrats were going to be facing in 2010.

I promise you, you are all gonna be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh, my God, why are they there in the polls, why is the polling so down, why is this thing so tough?" Biden said at a fund-raiser in Seattle just before the election. "We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us." Predicting a deficit "that may be as high as $750 billion" -- how quaint that sounds -- Biden told the crowd, "Only thing I'm asking you is, you know, gird your loins.

So, though Obama felt compelled at the time to "slap down" his ticket partner, Marcus wonders if this was the right move: "Would the president be better off today if his campaign-and-beyond message had been a bit more realistic--more Bidenesque?

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Heather Horn