So it was Honeymooners versus Family Ties, Ed Norton versus Alex Keating. What we saw Thursday night in the vice-presidential debate wasn’t only an argument about policy, it was a look at two different eras in American family life.

Biden of course could stand on Neptune and distract attention away from the sun. He entered the Senate in 1973, back when the old Democratic giants from the New Deal era still roamed the earth. Every sentimental tone of voice, every ebullient and condescending grin brought you back to the old kitchen tables in working class Catholic neighborhoods of places like Scranton, Chicago, San Francisco, Providence and Philadelphia.