Joe Biden, opulently funded as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is splurging $12 million on TV ads. One focuses on his relationship with President Barack Obama. It takes its audio from Obama’s 2017 speech in giving his veep the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s a smart, folksy ad that depicts an ordinary Joe who is yet also remarkable, and it finishes with Obama describing Biden as a “loyal and humble servant,” adding, “The best part is, he’s nowhere close to finished.”

Much meaning is packed into this. The bit about Biden being nowhere near finished is meant to show that Obama doesn’t believe his onetime sidekick has lost the plot, is simply past it. That seems doubtful. Biden, 77, is suddenly winning, but he is still the meandering chucklehead he was when he seemed to be sinking without trace. His party disinterred him and is carrying him across the finish line.