[AaronInCarolina]

By any estimation, that's a little more than a cordial hello.

How do you figure? If that is all that happened, he may not even have actually interacted personally with Edwards. My point is that these short social encounters occur hundreds (may thousands) of times with politicians who have social functions nearly daily. I concede, however, that his mis-statement could have been avoided by having his staff vet what he planned to say.

[lugsoul]

It is not like Johnny boy is some staffer from HHS. He is a Senator - one of a hundred that the Veep presides over. I would think he wouldn't make such a statement unless he was pretty darned sure he hadn't encountered the guy, and I would think he would have a pretty good idea which of the 100 he'd never met - it can't be many.