Joe Biden has a few (actually many) things on his mind

MANCHESTER, N.H. â€”  For 20 minutes it was Joe Biden, live and unplugged.

Standing with a hand-held microphone, before a dozen TV cameras and scores of reporters, the former vice president held forth Saturday. Not as someone whose decades-long political career was on the line, which it may well be in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

More like a man set free, his tongue loosened and liberated — although, it should be said, for much of this campaign it has been Biden who chose to avoid the kind of free-ranging, all-access press policy that transformed Pete Buttigieg from a pinpoint to a serious contender for the Democratic nomination.

The former vice president was cloistered — seen by reporters but not available for questions — until his dire political situation left him no choice but to shed his front-runner’s presumption and show a bit of stagy swagger. Finishing fourth in the Iowa caucuses will do that to a candidate whose White House bid is heavily premised on supposed electability.

For the loquacious Biden, standing in a campaign field office in a former American Legion Hall, it was like a dam burst open. Or a shaken soda bottle, uncorked.

He talked. And talked and talked some more: about his rivals and their extravagant promises — “C’mon, man� — about the absurdity of those crowded debates, where seemingly everyone and their brother has been allowed on stage.

“You call those debates?� he demanded. “I’ve been in debates.�

He named two of them, against his vice presidential opponents in 2012 and 2008.

“I debated Paul Ryan. I debated that woman from Alaska who could see Russia,� he said, referring to Sarah Palin. “I did pretty well. They were debates. You could answer questions. Look folks, c’mon.�

Several times staffers sought to cut Biden off, peremptorily shouting, “Last question!�

He talked, and talked some more.

Buttigieg? Nice guy. Great former mayor of South Bend, Ind. But, c’mon. “The idea of passing a budget as the mayor of a town the size of Manchester.…�

Bernie Sanders? No knock on the guy. But push through Congress a massive “Medicare for all� plan and then explain how he’d pay for it? C’mon.

Biden paced. He scowled and squinted. He lowered his voice to a theatrical hush and nearly shouted.

How, as the candidate who says he can reclaim the industrial Midwest for Democrats, does he explain his poor showing in Iowa?

That? That was a contest for the Democratic nomination, he said. It was strongly tilted to the left, whereas Biden’s appeal is more to the center, as well as disaffected Republicans. “C’mon, man,� he scoffed. “Comparing that to a general election is just not rational.�

Biden knew all along, he said, that he’d walk around with a bull’s-eye on his back. That’s the way it goes for the front-runner — not that you’d ever hear a peep of complaint.

“You deal with what’s before you,� Biden shrugged. “As my dad would say, never explain and never complain.�

The acquittal of President Trump? Biden mocked the justifications given by Republicans who, he said, cleared the president of an impeachable offense. “George Washington is rolling over in his grave,� he said, “and George Wallace is clapping.�

No podium, no lectern. Just a man and his thoughts, walking in a small semicircle.

Punching at his fellow Democrats? Not his thing, but that’s how politics works these days.

“I don’t think we need a circular firing squad. But you all,� he told reporters, “judge on how much fire is there. Are you ready to respond? You judge whether or not you go after a Democrat who misrepresents you and say, ‘Well, can he take on Trump?’�

So now it’s slugging — and available — Joe.

Pull up a chair? Biden declined, to the evident relief of aides.

He walked off, quoting his mother. “God bless you all,� he said, “and see you all later.�