also (0.00 / 0)

You could view his run for President as really being a run for VP or Secretary of State. He'd been around long enough to know that a field with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards (all current or former Senators) would leave little air for the candidacy of a 36-year Senate veteran. And he was mostly complimentary of Obama during the debates and campaign. He pushed his own experience and Obama's lack of it but it was more half-hearted than Clinton's attacks on these points.

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by: tremayne @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 15:53:33 PM UTC

Right (0.00 / 0)

Just for my own ego's sake, I want to point out that on MyDD in 2005, I actually predicted that Biden would be Vice President. There was a Jerome Armstrong diary discussing the likely presidential run that Biden was setting up, and my comment was, "Hey, to me, it looks like he's running for VP!"

Unfortunately, every other prediction I've made since then has been wrong... but I got this one. Here's what I said:

Maybe not President Biden... (3.00 / 2)
But Vice President Biden?

I'm not a big fan of the guy, and don't particularly want him in either spot, but to me, it feels like he's running for Vice President, not President. He's getting his name out there, making noise to get noticed, but at the same time he's been talking up other people's candidacies more than his own. He called Senator Clinton "the overwhelming, prohibitive favorite" for the nomination (which is probably true right now), and, even more obviously, I noticed this on the DraftMarkWarner.com website:

"On a possible Warner run for the White House, Senator Joe Biden teased the February 5th Jefferson-Jackson dinner crowd with lines such as "My name is Joe Biden and I'm here to audition for Vice President of the United States of America" and even more obviously, "When I'm Mark Warner's Vice President."."

And this would make sense in a way. If an outsider governor from Virginia or New Mexico were to win the nomination, wouldn't they want a DC insider with recent foreign policy experience? That could be his thinking.

That's my thought, anyway. I could be wrong.
Walberg Watch - Following Radical Conservative Rep. Tim Walberg in MI-07
by Fitzy on Sun Jun 19, 2005 at 02:54:01 PM EST

My line of reasoning in 2005 was a little bit flimsy, but looking back, I think he did a great job running for the #2 spot. He made himself nationally recognizable ("Meet the Press" every other week, funny debate lines, etc.). He showed that he was comfortable going on the attack but didn't leave any permanent marks on anyone. And he showed that he could speak intelligently, so there'd be no Dan Quayle issue.

I'm still not crazy about the guy... He hasn't always been netroots-friendly and he's always just bugged me somehow. But he might be a pretty good vice president. I'm certainly willing to give him a chance.

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by: Fitzy @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 17:37:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

People I knolw loved him (0.00 / 0)

Political novices saw this guy in the debates and loved him. Many friends were asking me who he was and what he was all about after seeing his performances. I wrote him off as pro-war and a servant of the credit industry. Now, I'm very pleased to have him as VP. If you take the view that Obama is the boss and his subordinates are his employees, then Biden is simply a fantastic hire.  

"Don't hate the media, become the media" -Jello Biafra

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by: LandStander @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 15:57:37 PM UTC

Elizabeth Edwards (0.00 / 0)

wrote last spring that she watched focus groups after various debates, and people would frequently say, "I want to know more about that Biden guy."

He did extremely well in the debates, and also at his campaign appearances in Iowa. This guy would answer questions thoughtfully for an hour or more. In fact, in my opinion Biden had the best word-of-mouth from his campaign events. I wrote about this at the time at Bleeding Heartland:

http://www.bleedingheartland.c...

http://www.bleedingheartland.c...

Join the Iowa progressive community at Bleeding Heartland.

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by: desmoinesdem @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 17:19:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Biden is incredibly likable (4.00 / 1)

yet at the same time can be an "arrogant jerk" as Ezra Klein put it. These together are his greatest strength.

"Likability" doesn't get talked about as much as it used to be. We talk about "electability" but we usually mean different things by that - is a candidate mainstream enough, is he/she viewed as sufficiently "tough" with respect to foreign policy, does he/she have any skeletons in their closet, if so how bad, etc. But the role in elections of raw likability seems to me to be nearly as important. Especially now, when the media coverage is such that the president is practically like a member of your family in terms of how much you see and hear of him. (I figure I will see and hear from Barack Obama over the next four years on a more regular basis than I will my mother or my siblings.)

By choosing Biden, Obama created a dramatic likability discrepancy with the cantankerous McCain and the Mean Girl Sarah Palin. Yet, Biden's arrogant-jerk streak gave him a self-confidence, a comfort in his own skin, that allowed him to play the VP attack-dog role very well.  

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by: Jason C. @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 17:35:14 PM UTC