I’m watching Biden with his prepared remarks at my side. The guy does a lot of editing on the fly, and almost always to put words in, never to take them out. And they’re usually not necessary. Phoebe would kill him. But it’s sort of charming, at least in this speech. The effect is to make every third sentence sound less polished, and thus to make every second paragraph sound a little more authentic.

Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more.