Joe Biden issued a pretty muddled statement walking back his remarks that this Obama campaign ad mocking John McCain's inability to send an email was "terrible":

“Having now reviewed the ad, it is even more clear to me that given the disgraceful tenor of Senator McCain’s ads and their persistent falsehoods, his campaign is in no position to criticize, especially when they continue to distort Barack’s votes on an issue as personal as keeping kids safe from sexual predators.”

So does Biden think that mocking McCain's inability to email--something that is difficult for McCain because of his war injuries--isn't terrible? Or just that it's fair game because the McCain campaign has supposedly distorted Obama's votes?

Patrick Healy of the pro-Obama advocacy organization New York Times explains that Biden "was referring to a McCain campaign ad that distorted Mr. Obama’s position on sexual education; that ad asserted that Mr. Obama favored sex education for little children, based on his support for a comprehensive sex education bill as an Illinois legislator. As for kindergarten students, the bill was intended to teach them about sexual predators, and parents of children of all ages would have been allowed to withdraw their children from the classes."

Actually, that's Obama campaign spin. The text of the sex-ed bill Obama supported reads: "Each class or course in comprehensive sex education in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV." But it's probably not fair to blame the Times for ignoring the text of the bill. Really, we should blame the McCain campaign for the media's decision to lap up Obama's talking points.