On the most important issue facing statesmen in Biden’s entire apparently never-ending career, Biden was completely wrong. He opposed Reagan at every step. And right after Reagan’s “wall” speech, Biden again took the line that Reagan shouldn’t dare to provoke the Soviet bear.

Thus, on June 15, Reagan wrote in his diary about a meeting with some of his top aides: “[There was] some talk about Sen. Biden — now candidate for Pres. I saw him on CNN last night speaking to the John F. Kennedy school at Harvard U. He’s smooth but pure demagog[ue] — out to save Am[erica] from the Reagan doctrine.”