Cell phones around the country greeted their owners this morning with text messages proclaiming that Barack Obama had chosen Joe Biden as his Vice-Presidential nominee. An interesting pick; I would have been more excited by Kathleen Sebelius or Wesley Clark, but I can live with it.
The things you need to know about Joe Biden are: (1) He has been a Senator forever (half of his life). (2) He is a smart guy, not a stuffed suit. (3) He has formidable expertise in foreign policy. (4) He is somewhat prone to gaffes. (5) He is feisty, and effective in attack-dog mode. (6) He can be a bit of an asshole.
The best news about the pick is that it shows Obama wants to take the fight to the Republicans, especially on foreign policy. There is nobody McCain is likely to pick for VP whom Biden would not be able to make look silly in a debate. As Ezra Klein points out, all you need to know about why Obama picked Biden is contained in this very short clip:
He can think on his feet — literally, and apparently while chewing peanuts or something — and manages to effortlessly eviscerate Rudy Giuliani with a single sarcastic look. Most importantly, he gives the impression of being completely comfortable with the intricacies of foreign policy; this will contrast well with McCain, who loves to talk about foreign policy but is somewhat fuzzy on many of the actual details.
Biden is far from a perfect pick. He is a Washington insider, with a long track record of votes to be sifted through for ammunition for the other side. He voted for the Iraq war, even if he did try to craft a less-crazy resolution than the one that eventually passed. He has criticized Obama and praised McCain in the past. He voted to confirm Clarence Thomas. He said that Obama was the first “articulate and bright” African-American national politician. During a previous Presidential run, he had to drop out after a speechwriter plagiarized from British politician Neil Kinnock — including giving Biden some Welsh coal-mining ancestors he never had.
Nevertheless, I can live with the pick. Politics aside, I think Biden would be just about a perfect Vice-President, except for one thing. That is, he would be great at the actual duties of being a Vice-President — he will be a loyal and forceful advocate for the administration’s policies to the outside world, will provide invaluable inside expertise and ability to get things done, and will be an intelligent and loyally-critical voice during internal deliberations. He won’t be a yes-man, nor will he be a Cheneyan separate branch of government. The one downside is that I wouldn’t actually want him as President; he doesn’t seem the type to successfully steer a complex administration through the inevitable bumps in the road.
So here’s hoping that Obama wins the election, and goes on to a healthy and productive eight years in office.
Ah well – I’d still rather’ve had Kerry, but I do like the sound of this guy. Here’s hoping.
So Clinton as Surgeon General or head of the War Crimes Tribunal?
Biden’s a disaster. This has got to be God’s gift to the GOP: Obama and Biden, birds of a lying, deceitful feather…
According to the authorative wikipedia Biden either said: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” or “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American, who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” both aren’t necesarily well thought out statements but I don’t think it can be taken as fact that he said “Obama was the first ‘articulate and bright’ African-American national politician.
Biden — the perfect foil for Palin!
HAHAHA Your post makes me laugh. The Democrats just handed the RNC a victory! Biden adds absolutely nothing to the ticket. Historically, people do not vote for VP. They vote for president.
McCain is already hitting Biden. Look at this video:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/mccain-rolls-out-new-ad-with-bidens-words/
Does Biden think Obama is now suddenly ready to be president?
Biden VOTED for the Iraq resolution!
You know the same resolution that Obama and his campaign used as a wedge to divide the democratic party with! Dems need to stand as one on Iraq but Obama thought otherwise. Uniter?? riiiight.
Obama and his nasty campaign criticized Hillary and her Iraq vote with severe prejudice. Will Obama criticize Biden over the same issue??
I like Biden and I feel so sorry that he decided to board a sinking ship.
I would vote for a Obama Hillary ticket probably but never a Biden Obama ticket. I’m glad he didn’t pick Hillary.
Expect no one to care who he picks. ditto McCain.
Obama will lose in November because he does represents same old Washington politics and the the dems are divided.
Sorry I forgot to mention one important thing:
I think the Obama campaign made an enormous mistake by not even trying to give the ILLUSION that Hillary Clinton was being vetted.
She received more votes (over 18 million) than Obama did EVEN with the fraud people call a caucus. Biden received 9,500 votes.
This was a mistake and he needs her supporters much more than she would’ve needed his.
Just a meta-comment, I am always amazed at the degree political coverage mimics sports coverage. Here and elsewhere it is almost impossible to find any commentary on how this (or anything else) is likely to effect future policies, it is all about the horse race.
Charge up that base…
Daily Kos
.
Buh-Biden
My two cents:
There are two important features of the VP candidate:
a) Does s/he encourage the base and independents?
b) Does s/he fire up the opposition?
For a), I guess:
– Clinton: Yes
– Biden: Yes
For b), I guess:
– Clinton: Yes
– Biden: No
On these grounds, I think Biden is a better choice than Clinton for VP candidate.
Americanneocon: A few comments: 1) There is no god, 2) “lies and deceit” have been the GOP’s field of expertise for the last 8+ years, 3) Biden’s idea of straight talk makes me hope for the most entertaining campaign ever.
Kurt said: “. . . people do not vote for VP. They vote for president.” And then he said: “I would vote for a Obama Hillary ticket probably but never a Biden Obama ticket. ”
Hmmmm. Kurt, I guess this just goes to show that you’re no ordinary person.
🙂
As for me, I would have preferred Hillary, but Biden is a good pick. Let’s see if McCain picks Romney . . . given how much they dislike each other, that will be interesting.
I am well-enough pleased with Joe Biden being picked as Obama’s running mate. I think he brings lots of experience and “gravitas” to the ticket. I just hope he thinks about “the little guy” and is willing to accept Barack’s credit card reform proposals. Since he’d be at the national level, I suppose he can sough off the influence of business interests (for which he sadly picked up the derisory appellation “Mr. MBNA”) in DE.
BTW, my search on Google tells me (unless I am mistaken) I was first to propose “BO-Joe” [sic first two caps of course] as the cute Hollywood-style nickname for the team. Yeah, there’s a bumper-sticker joint advertising “NO BO JO” already as a proposed design, but I think I beat them by a few hours, heh.
However we already see the Greedy Old Plutocrats taking advantage of Biden’s criticism of BHO as “not yet ready” due to inexperience (especially FoPo) and that will hurt. I suppose BHO will just have to say, “The [Primary] voters made that choice, and my running mate understands that vision is as important in leadership as experience” blah …
Good luck to them and I will do what I can to get this “cute” pair elected! Don’t take any crap off John McCain’s crew, fellows!
Wow, no matter who he picked the GOP and Clinton supporters would find fault.
I think you Americans had better make sure you don’t let Obama’s choice for VP decide your vote in the general election. I remember a wise person saying “the rest of the world forgives you for electing George W once but will never forgive you for electing him twice”.
There is very little difference between Bush and McCain, another 4 yrs, you must be joking right.
An interested Canuck.
Pingback: trust rachel » Blog Archive » Joe Biden is funny, I’ll give him that
The plagiarism charge against Biden (for the Neil Kinnock speech) is baseless. Biden made many speeches where he quoted Kinnocks’s remarks and gave him credit for them. Then he made one speech where he forgot to mention Kinnock. Forgetting to mention it one time when you’re making a speech in a different town every night doesn’t constitute plagiarism.
BTW, here is a good take on the Obama/McCain smackdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJWFctQN5EQ
“The things you need to know about Joe Biden are: (1) He has been a Senator forever (half of his life). (2) He is a smart guy, not a stuffed suit. (3) He has formidable expertise in foreign policy. (4) He is somewhat prone to gaffes. (5) He is feisty, and effective in attack-dog mode. (6) He can be a bit of an asshole.”
In other words, he’s kinda like John McCain.
Obama-Bidennow !!!!!
What a great name to shore it up !!!
Michael Bacon- You are right. Let me be completely clear.
“Historically, people do not vote for VP. They vote for president.”
This is true. There are many studies, polls etc out there to give support to that claim.
BUT “I would vote for a Obama Hillary ticket probably but never a Biden Obama ticket”
So what’s your point?
Can you please understand the difference between what PEOPLE USUALLY do and what I personally would do in this election?
This has nothing to do with me being an ordinary person-which by the way I am not. I’m Batman.
America is so ready for the big O…
Biden is the perfect choice, he will be able to act as a political navigator once in office.
His choice as VP says that Obama is focused on who will help him lead effectively once in office, not just who will help him get elected…
So no one here will point out Obama has totally lost he was all about for?
‘Change’ suuuure…
Let’s hope he won’t lose the base, those out there really thought he was ‘different’ …
It’s all string theory… no wait…politics 😉
G
Biden is better than he appears. And he definitely does not appear as Harvard-educated hipster, Obama’s weakness.
He remarked once that Giulinani stump speach consists of sentences “Noun-verb-nine-eleven.” I though it was pretty funny.
I love this choice. The Daily Show website currently has all the interviews with Joe Biden on the front page — I didn’t really know anything about the guy before, but he comes across really well — articulate, funny, self-deprecating. It will be good to laugh at the VP because he’s witty, rather than because he shot someone in the face.
Joe Biden should have been publicly flogged for the way he treated Judge Robert Bork. Biden has no meaningful respect for the Constitution, but he does have the ethics of a rabid weasel.
Kurt/Batman,
My point was that you don’t think of yourself as an ordinary person and apparently you agree 🙂