Vice President Joe Biden left some observers in and out of Washington aghast with his whisper-in-ear embrace of new Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s wife Stephanie at Carter’s swearing-in Tuesday. As Carter was delivering his first speech as Pentagon chief, Biden, standing in the background, put his arms on Stephanie Carter’s shoulders and his face to her ear, apparently telling her something in what could reasonably be interpreted as an intimate embrace. A still image of the gesture shot around the social media world: