Joe Biden

At no point, however, did Biden try to rush the process. Only once or twice did he break in with a question or quick word of encouragement. He mostly just sat there, briefing book in front of him, listening and taking notes. Lots of notes. ­Pages of notes. “He had this whole system with some things written in some places and some in others,” says Dan Gross, head of the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence, who sat diagonally across the table from Biden. Gross says chuckling, “I started trying to figure out which page of notes I wanted to go on.”