Biden will be a good surrogate for Obama

by: desmoinesdem

Sat Aug 23, 2008 at 09:04


The case for Joe Biden as Barack Obama's running mate is simple: he's got a lot of experience at the federal level, particularly in foreign policy. That will reassure voters who may be concerned about Obama's resume and blunt a major line of attack from John McCain (whose ads have been questioning whether Obama is "ready to lead").  

But plenty of people in Washington have served in Congress for 20 or 30 years. What makes Biden better than most of them as a running mate? Media scripts about the "gaffe machine" notwithstanding, I submit that Biden's campaigning ability will be a huge asset to Obama.

I know the stories about Biden putting his foot in his mouth, and I am old enough to remember the Clarence Thomas hearings, when Biden talked too much and didn't put Thomas on the spot enough.

But he is a much better campaigner than people give him credit for. Follow me after the jump for more.
desmoinesdem :: Biden will be a good surrogate for Obama
Of all the presidential candidates, Biden got the best word of mouth from Iowans who attended his events last year. I don't think I ever talked to anyone who went to hear him and walked away unimpressed. I wrote about this last summer and again right before the Iowa caucuses.

If you don't believe me, read accounts by other people who listened to Biden take questions for an hour or more from voters, sometimes just about Iraq and foreign policy but more often about any topic Iowans felt like bringing up.

Biden is not going to need a crash course in federal policy to prepare for the vice-presidential debate, because he knows this stuff inside-out. And despite his reputation for long-windedness, he is able to answer questions in 30 to 60 seconds. In the Democratic candidates' debates last year, Biden did extremely well despite consistently getting 30 percent to 50 percent less time to speak than the front-runners. He often had the most memorable one-liners from those debates too.

Speaking about the news media's blackout of long-shot Democratic contenders, Elizabeth Edwards wrote in this op-ed for the New York Times:

And it's not as if people didn't want this information. In focus groups that I attended or followed after debates, Joe Biden would regularly be the object of praise and interest: "I want to know more about Senator Biden," participants would say.

Biden's speaking style is more aggressive than Obama's, which will help him be the attack dog Obama will need.

I also agree with Jonathan Singer's point that Biden's relative lack of wealth will reinforce the message that the Democratic candidates can relate to ordinary Americans on bread-and-butter economic issues.

Finally, Steve Clemons is absolutely right: Americans are going to love Jill Biden.

Biden wasn't my number one choice for Obama's vice president, but he is going to bring a lot to the table.

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Biden will be a good surrogate for Obama | 74 comments
I agree (4.00 / 4)
To me the main thing he brings to the table is the same thing that LBJ brought to the table (IE assuage fears that JFK would be controlled by the pope)

To lots of people in America Obama brings a lot of possibly frightening change.  Biden as a familiar face negates all that.


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Beyond The Campaign (4.00 / 2)
I have not been, and am not likely to become, a doting Obama fan.  He is another Democratic pick who is at least better than the alternative. I have found little reason for hope and find it sad that we have come to a place where hope is considered audacious.  But in his pick of Biden for vice president I find a glimmer of hope.  That hope could be built on an over analysis of Obama's motivation in making this choice.  

It seems to me that Biden may have been chosen more for what he can do for Obama after the election than before the election.  While it cannot be argued that Biden is not a Washington insider, it is significant that he has always pushed back against the culture of corruption.  I am encouraged because Biden is someone who knows how to make change happen and has the will to do it. Then again, I sort of thought the same thing about Pelosi.    

Biden co-sponsored (4.00 / 3)
the first bill on public financing of federal elections, way back in the 1970s. I am hoping he will nudge Obama toward real election reform.

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[ Parent ]
Yeah, but... (0.00 / 0)
...he also actively worked on the bankruptcy bill and still holds it in high regard for it bipartisanship:
http://www.pacificviews.org/we...

Let's hope he won't also nudge Obama in this direction!

[ Parent ]
the bankruptcy bill is a negative (4.00 / 3)
on Biden's record, I agree with you. However, I have seen him address this question at various public forums, and he does a pretty good job of defending his overall record, which I think is not bad.

Go to Progressive Punch and compare Biden's record on a whole range of issues with someone like Bayh's. Biden is way, way better.

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[ Parent ]
Yes, That Is Biden's Big Plus (4.00 / 1)
In fact, he's got two of them:

(1) It could have been Bayh.
(2) It could have been Kaine.

OTOH, it makes the failure to pick Schweitzer or Sebelius (both second tier choices in my book) look like turning his back on his brand.


"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
Not Sure what Obama's Brand Is (4.00 / 1)
But as a progressive I would have rather had Biden at the top of the ticket than Obama.  So I guess this pick feels a little like value added branding to me.
[ Parent ]
I think Champ Clark said it best when talking about Dem nominee options in 1920 (0.00 / 0)
"There ain't no first stringers this year. It's all second-stringers."

Nobody was perfect and those that we would have preferred weren't going to be considered. So Biden's the best of what's available. I think he's a good pick.

[ Parent ]
about that bankruptcy bill (4.00 / 1)
It sucks and he shouldn't have worked on it.

However, if any senator can be forgiven for voting for it, it's DE's representing senator. DE, as you may know, has precious few sources of income outside of tolls on I-95, luring out-of-state shoppers with it lack of sales tax, and race-to-the-bottom corporate oversight laws that encourage every company in America to incorporate in DE. Now, this is a shitty situation, but it is at least in the democratic spirit of constituent representation for Biden to vote in the [disgusting] interest of the [goddamn] banking industry.

So I'd like to think that Biden didn't vote for it out of some kind of corrupt ties to the industry, or moral evaluation that thought it was the "right" thing to do, but out of obligation to his constituents.  

[ Parent ]
US interests should come first (4.00 / 1)
Like I said in another comment. And using Delaware's deliberately weak business laws as a carrot to attract credit card conmpanies, and then build an alibi on it, is really a bit rich. Delaware isn't a poor state like New Mexico or Louisisana. And credit card companies aren't really at the brink of bankruptcy. Quite to the contrary.
[ Parent ]
delaware has nothing but DuPont and the credit card companies (0.00 / 0)
That's it. I grew up there. Everyone works for either DuPont chemical, a state institution, or a bank.  
[ Parent ]
Again, go tell that credit card customers in NM! (0.00 / 0)
I'm certain they have a lot of sympathy for, say, AmExCo ripping them off, with the best interests of the state Delaware in mind, of course.  
[ Parent ]
so... (0.00 / 0)
how did NM's representation vote on the bill? Or the other 48 states?  
[ Parent ]
Lobbyism triumped representation (0.00 / 0)
Those assholes Bingaman (D-NM) and Domenici (R-NM) voted "Yea", just like Biden:
http://www.senate.gov/legislat...
(btw, why do I have to do the googling? Are you too lazy?)

Well, that's not what I would call good representation, neither of US, not of local interests. Those credit card companies sure got some equity back for all the millions they spend on lobbying this issue.
:-(

[ Parent ]
my point is (0.00 / 0)
In the theory of representative govt, generally speaking, all you have to do is represent your interests, and that will define the national interests. Under this theory, Biden did his job, and the rest of the Senate didn't.

Obviously, a better solution would be for Biden to find a way to finance his state without utilizing crappy tax laws. But in this particular case, on the culpability scale, I'd put Biden way lower than basically everyone else who voted for the bill, given that he was doing his job of representing his state's interests.

[ Parent ]
I agree. (0.00 / 0)
Obama did stuff for the coal industry too, which he's now backed off on.

What do these people want? A senator to work against the interests of his state?

Now that both are going to be representing all of the country--versus representing just their states--they'll make decisions from that perspective.

[ Parent ]
Ask Chris Dodd about nuclear submarines... (0.00 / 0)
...and see if you get a straight answer. To some extent every politician gives the people who elect him/her a little of what they want. Some politicians are stay in office by delivering bluster instead of pork. Very few deliver no bluster and no pork.

John McCain
[ Parent ]
Biden (D-MBNA) Has ALWAYS Pushed Back Against The Culture Of Corruption? (0.00 / 0)
Good to know!

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3
[ Parent ]
There is a difference between saying he's good and that he's perfect (4.00 / 1)
I don't anyone think he's perfect, but that shouldn't be the end of the discussion about whether he's good.
[ Parent ]
We're Not Talking Perfect vs. Good (4.00 / 1)
We're talking part of the problem vs. part of the solution.

A lot of folks take a shot at reform when they first arrive in DC, then settle in to work the system.  Biden has always seemed like a prime example of that to me.

Of course this means that the Versailles media will be much more open to him.  But we all remember how much good that did when Gore picked Lieberman.  So we'll just have to see.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
There's a fine line (4.00 / 3)
Yes, Biden's bankruptcy vote is bad, but let's tease this vote out, shall we?

1) Delaware has a very small population.

2) The credit card, insurance and financial services industry have a very large presence there, including corporate headquarters.

3) Therefore, one could probably infer that a disproportionate number of jobs and a disproportionate quantity of Delaware's economy depends upon these industries.  

4) These industries wanted the bankruptcy bill.  

5) Joe Biden is Delaware's senator, responsible for the welfare of his constituents in Delaware who disproportionately owe their economic well-being to the success of the credit card companies.

6) Since when is Joe Biden senator of the whole US?

My point is, that his bankruptcy bill vote, while it screws most US consumers, is entirely in line with his job before being a Democrat, which is to properly represent his constituents.  Much as we might dislike it, our own senators do the same thing, when they bring earmarks home to our state businesses, lobby for military bases not for ideal placement, but rather as sources for jobs, etc.  When push comes to shove, at some point, part of the job of a senator is to put his state first.

[ Parent ]
The Nuremberg Defense (4.00 / 2)
Lovely!

It's one thing to seek a competetive advantage for your state.  Quite another to scew most US consumers, as you yourself freely admit.

Look back to my initial comment.  You can spin this any way you want, but it's not ALWAYS fighting corruption.  It's fighting corruption when it's someone else's corruption.  And normalizing it when it's your own.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
It's Not Corruption (4.00 / 2)
When your state's economy is almost entirely composed of these companies.  It's called following the will of your constituents.  

One of the most basic theories of legislator behavior is that the legislator is supposed to represent the true interests and economic well-being of his constituents first.  Legislators are not supposed to be looking out entirely for the national interest and the founders knew that.  They assumed (read your Federalist papers) that national policy would be the foundation of competing interests, not some Rousseau-esque General Will.  

To assume that this is corruption, you have to assume that people in every state have the same interests, which, just by geography is far from true.

With regard to Gray's comment, whose interests do you think he's representing.  The credit card interests in Delaware are the interests of the voters at home.  I would bet that more Delaware residents would be negatively impacted by the decline of the credit card industry than would be by the bankruptcy bill.  Biden's vote on this bill was natural and right.  

That said, senators from other states, whose economies, unlike Delaware, don't almost depend on such industries, got it very, very wrong and should be castigated.  But, given the special circumstances of Delaware, Biden's pro-credit votes are logical and the product of doing his job right.  

[ Parent ]
What about your motives? (0.00 / 0)
"With regard to Gray's comment, whose interests do you think he's representing."

I'm representing only me, nobody else. While I think many, but not all, of my views are mainstream liberal, I wouldn't dare to claim that I'm representing anybody else.

And, what about you? You don't happen to represent anybody else, I understand? I'm very much for public disclosure of lobbyist activities, you know!
:P

[ Parent ]
Pardon My Grammar (0.00 / 0)
I was referring to whose interests do you (Gray) think he (Biden) is representing?
[ Parent ]
Oops! (4.00 / 1)
Sry, I'm a sloppy reader sometimes, and so I didn't notice that. My fault, too. Forget about my tirade above, pls!
[ Parent ]
Not your fault (4.00 / 1)
I went back and looked at what I wrote.  It really was rather unclear, to be perfectly honest.  
[ Parent ]
I really enjoyed this act of mutual civility. (0.00 / 0)
Kudos to both of you.
[ Parent ]
Businesses <> Constituents (4.00 / 1)
It's perfectly normal to expect a Republican to represent the business interests of his home state, no matter how dewtrimental to the common good, and to blithely equate those interests with the interests of his constituents.

But for a Democrat to do the same, and for commenters on a progressive blog to follow suit is simply evidence of how utterly lost they are.

As I said above, it's legitimate to press for advantages, such as citing a major infrastructure project--though the "bridge to nowhere" shows that even this can be taken so far that it clearly counts as corruption, too.  But this is something completely different.  It is something unconsionable harmful to millions of Americans, and there was not the least bit of justification for it.  Financial companies were not going to go bankrupt themselves if they didn't get what they were after.  It was no sort of economic threat to Biden's true constituents.

It was, quite simply, doing the bidding of his campaign contributors, against the common good.  That is corruption, pure and simple.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
Biden is a US Senator (0.00 / 0)
So, US interests should come first. Delaware already is following a questionable economic policy, attracting many companies because of its very business-friendly laws. This goes at the expense of the US customers, and of other states, too. And, like Paul said, sadly Biden seems to be part of that problem, and not of the solution.  

So, sorry, but your argument is not convincing. Biden should care more about the US and of his voters at home, and less about credit card companies whose profits are already shamelessly high. Those credit sharks certainly don't need Congress to tilt the laws even more in their favor. They are doing great, and not facing bankruptcylike many of their customers.
No, really, Biden should be ashamed of this vote. Period.

[ Parent ]
well in this case (0.00 / 0)
We should just go ahead and abolish state boundaries. And "representative" government.  
[ Parent ]
I haven't said that (0.00 / 0)
Even though federalism has some flaws. But centralized government isn't necessarily better, either. It's always a compromise. And in Biden's case, While being a US Senator it's only natural he also has the interests of his constituency in mind. But most of Delaware voters are actually victims of credit card policies, and not profiting from that industry. So, even regarding the local view, his support for that horrible bill shows a disregard for the economic worries of his base.
[ Parent ]
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America" (4.00 / 1)
That's the pledge of alliance Senators recite at the start of a new season. It doesn't say anything about the welfare´of their home states being even more important than the US. And in the constitution, you won't find that either.

So, sry, but you're mistaken: US Senators have to care about the US in the first place.  

[ Parent ]
No (4.00 / 2)
They're elected to care about and represent the interests of their home states and constituents in Congress.  Seeing as how some things, like national defense, for instance, are shared interests of all the states, they have to cooperate on them.  They are not, nor were they ever, elected to represent the interests of the entire US as a whole.  Rather, they represent US interests within the context of their states.  

This is basic, introductory, US political theory.

[ Parent ]
Hmm, reluctantly, ok (0.00 / 0)
After reading this speech by JFK that copes with the issue, I see that the primacy of interest isn't so clear cut:
"As one who has served several years in our House of Representatives and in the United States Senate, I must admit that the task of representation is not always as simple as it sometimes seems to students of the legislative process.  Those of you who aspire to public office should be reminded that it is not always easy to be on the side of the angels.  Indeed, on most issues it seems as though the angels are not with us - at least not politically, as the questions that face us do not involve moral issues of right and wrong - but rather the settlement of conflicting claims of powerful interests.  For example, though I believe that the St. Lawrence Waterway would benefit substantial sections of my country as well as yours - yet its effect on New England, and particularly on the Port of Boston which I represent, might be unfortunate.  The easy answer on the course to adopt would be for the Representative to vote for the national interest, but am I not sent to the Congress to represent the needs of my people."
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Hist...  
[ Parent ]
Not necessarily (4.00 / 1)
For one thing, this isn't "basic, introductory, US political theory." It's a normative question. Obviously senators are free to choose either way - to put their state first, or their country. We can argue about which way they should go, but neither choice is in any sense dictated by the structure of our government.

And national security is not, necessarily, a shared interest of all the states. For various reasons, some states are much more vulnerable on that front than others. So if the senator from Wyoming were to abide by your formulation of his senatorial duties, he would vote against any money going to homeland security in NYC because what does it do for his state?

[ Parent ]
Furthermore (4.00 / 1)
If we really want to go there, the pledge of allegiance has absolutely no binding effect upon US senators.  It was developed in 1892 for schoolchildren.  Senators are required to swear an oath to the constitution, which nowhere requires them to put national interests above state interests.  Most constitutional framers (Madison, for instance in Federalist) furthermore believed that legislators would largely represent the interests of their own states, and the US government was designed accordingly.  
[ Parent ]
Literal is the knave (0.00 / 0)
I'm sorry, by "always" I did not intend to imply that he his work was been universally perfect at every turn.  While very disappointing, his work on the Bankruptcy bill did include efforts to protect the weak.  This is not to say that I agreed with what he did.  But he is a senator from Delaware working in Washington.  Biden is a liberal senator with a long history that he will be hammered on from the right.  While I am not going to suggest that we should cut him much slack on much of what he has done in conjunction with the banking industry, neither would I suggest drowning him in the small amount of bathwater that comes with staying in office.  He has ALWAYS done far better at staying true to progressive values than most of his colleagues in the senate.  Let's leave it to the right to provide an unbalanced look at the man with no recognition of his great contributions.  
[ Parent ]
That is true (0.00 / 0)
if you forget his sponsoring of the bankruptcy bill at the behest of the credit card companies (who have great power in Deleware).

As a former legal aid attorney who used to represent the poor, the bankruptcy is a a rpime example of a sell-out to corporate interests - and for poor and working class people much more important than FISA.

He is a good campaigner, but I have a LOT of problems about his role in the bankruptcy bill.  

[ Parent ]
Not a bad choice... (0.00 / 0)
...but not an exciting one, either. Expect Biden to be fielding a whole lot of questions about Obama's inexperience now, because I think Biden used the most forceful language about it back during the debate season (there's also the infamous "fresh, clean" flap; that was Biden, right?). And even though it would have been great for Obama to pick someone who was against the war from day one, I think I realized that issue wouldn't resonate back during primary season while watching Hillary Clinton. A substantial number of Americans have changed their views on the war in the past four years, so any about-face is kinda in step with the mainstream. And Biden's certainly ready to take the fight to McCain.

"This ain't for the underground. This here is for the sun." -Saul Williams
I agree with fladem (4.00 / 1)
who commented yesterday that this was a risk-averse choice. I would have preferred Clark, but of the names on Obama's short list, Biden brings the most to the table by far in my opinion.

Steve M has a good diary up at MyDD on that "clean, articulate" flap:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008...

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[ Parent ]
Easy answer on the experience thing (4.00 / 2)

 "Do you mean inexperienced like Clinton in '92, or inexperienced like Reagan in '80?"

 

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn

[ Parent ]
"How about inexpeirenced like Carter?" (0.00 / 0)
Well, this wouldn't be so good, right? Fact is, we don't know yet. But, no misunderstanding, this uncertainty is still better than the certainty that McCain's fast finger at the trigger can drive the nation into war as fast as you can say "South Ossetia".
[ Parent ]
Wouldn't work (0.00 / 0)
Both of them had more than a decade of experience being governors. This would be brought up and whoever made the argument would look silly.

We aren't Republicans. We can't use ridiculous arguments and get away with it.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog

[ Parent ]
Not in foreign policy (0.00 / 0)

 That's the point.

 Obama's been in public service longer than reagan had been in 1980.  

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn

[ Parent ]
What is "public service", in your opinion? (0.00 / 0)
This doesn't count?
"Reagan was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild in 1941, serving as an alternate."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

Imho unions are acting very much in service for the public. But that's a progressive view, of course, and your mileage may vary.  

[ Parent ]
I agree-- sort of boring (0.00 / 0)
The silver lining for me is that I actually feel relieved that it's not Kaine/Bayh/Clinton, and I know that's probably what the Obama campaign was going for in their VP roll out strategy, which means they are actually pretty media savvy, despite what the blahgs have said over the past few weeks.
[ Parent ]
Biden resonates where Obama doesn't. (4.00 / 5)
We all know that Obama resonates really well with millennials, African Americans and college graduates; he is able to appeal to them on various levels, from shared experience to intellectual understanding.  However, among working class it's always been a tougher sell.  I don't believe that it's true to the extent that media and pro-Hillary concern trolling has implied, but I think at a fundamental level, there are at least some misgivings.  Coming from a working class family where my parents didn't go to college, I've found that among the candidates not named John Edwards (although now he's not so popular), the candidate who really can resonate with working class voters appears to be Biden.  His one-liners and vicious attacks on Bush et al. tap into some of the very real populist anger out there that the Obama post-partisan campaign doesn't really leverage, while his penchant for relatively straightforward (daresay straight-talking?) answers actually touch the same sort of nerve that McCain did in 2000.  

That said, Biden will only really be properly used if he's completely unleashed.  A buttoned-up Biden is functionally useless because his greatest positives come off the cuff.  Hopefully the Obama campaign realizes this and keeps him on a long leash, rather than the short one everyone else is recommending.  

Women (4.00 / 1)
Biden is the reason we have the Violence Against Women Act, which is important to those of us working on women's issues in the trenches.  For this reason he can bring around the beltway based women's groups and their constituencies.
[ Parent ]
The Bankruptcy Bill (0.00 / 0)
Anyone going to talk about this?  I am worried about the economic expertise of the Obama/Biden ticket.  We may be heading into the next Great Depression, and nobody running for President seems especially interested.

At least Biden should be a return to pre-43 FP consensus.  But that consensus was still happy to provoke Russia by pushing NATO membership right up to its borders, and the fiasco in Georgia is the beginning of the blowback from that. Had NATO membership been extended to Georgia, the US would now be technically at war with Russia.

It was ugly (0.00 / 0)
but maybe not as ugly as you think-- see this comment upthread.

http://www.openleft.com/showCo...

[ Parent ]
Why the redundancy? (0.00 / 0)
When reading this story, I had a strong deja vu feeling. While I couldn't believe that Desmoinesdem would engage in plagiarism, I was certain I read this before. And, voila!, there is the same story at MyDD, also by Desmoinesdem...

Now, I'm sure many, if not most readers here visit both OpenLeft and MyDD every day. I don't want to be a spoilsport, but is this double posting a good idea? Already both blogs seem to be to similar in the choice of topics sometimes, and even regarding the ideas that are debated.

What do you think? Problem, or not?

I don't cross-post everything I write (4.00 / 7)
but I have cross-posted when I feel the topic would be of interest to readers of both blogs. A lot of people read both Open Left and MyDD, but many people just read one.

I do take your point, and I will defer to the judgment of admins at both sites.

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[ Parent ]
Fair enough (0.00 / 0)
"I have cross-posted when I feel the topic would be of interest to readers of both blogs."

As long as this stays the exception, and doesn't become a rule, this isn't much of a problem. I'm only afraid of both blogs becoming mere copies of each other. I like the slightly different points of view that distinguish MyDD and OpenLeft.

Hmm,just one point: Maybe it would be a good idea to add a note about the cross-posting, so that readers don't become confused. Might lead to misunderstandings if a reader looks for his comment at the wrong blog and doesn't find it!
;-)

[ Parent ]
Well, good info on the Web is hard to come by... (0.00 / 0)
...so cross-posting doesn't bother me. Truth is, I visited MyDD for the first time this very morning. Flagging the pieces might help, though.

"This ain't for the underground. This here is for the sun." -Saul Williams
[ Parent ]
Longtime readers know both blogs (0.00 / 0)
You may not know that, but Matt and Chris blogged at MyDD before starting their own site, and so many longtime readers are familiar with both MyDD and OpenLeft.
[ Parent ]
Stopped going to mydd (0.00 / 0)
when it got less...um....stimulating during the primaries.
[ Parent ]
normally I don't post at the same time (0.00 / 0)
I might post them at both blogs 6 to 12 hours apart.

The reason I went ahead and posted here this morning was that there hadn't been a new post up for several hours.

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[ Parent ]
Agreed (4.00 / 1)
Cross-linking the posts makes it easy for people who are interested in seeing both comment streams....
[ Parent ]
Ok, Ok (0.00 / 0)
But I would still like to see a notice when this happens, to avoid confusion.
[ Parent ]
Not. (4.00 / 3)
I read this blog every day, mydd a few times a week. Many people do the reverse, or read only one of them.

Cross-posting gets an idea out in front of a larger audience.

Montani semper liberi

[ Parent ]
Potential Trouble - the arrogant meme (0.00 / 0)
I love Barack Obama.

Unfortunately, IMO, Biden is just about the least humble personality in the US Senate.

Perhaps that's what's needed - someone with that kind of "self-confidence" would be an appropriate attack dog.

But to make this ticket work, there will have to be a focus on how Biden is probably the least wealthy member of the Senate.

This doesn't worry me at all (4.00 / 4)

 We don't want shrinking violets. We've got enough of those in the Democratic Party, thank you.

 Arrogance and self-confidence are virtues in a White House ticket.

Biden's a mixed bag, but that's one of his GOOD attributes.

 And his relatively modest economic situation, in the wake of HouseGate, is a very nice bonus.  

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn

[ Parent ]
But Biden is scrappy (4.00 / 2)
He does not come off as an arrogant elitist. He's got that man's man, so to speak, image. He is just rough enough around the edges to add some street creds to the ticket. His apeal to working class voters will be an asset to the ticket.

This is a well balanced ticket with Biden taking off a little of that pristine shine Obama can have at times.

Agree with all of the other points DMD makes too.

[ Parent ]
Parents (4.00 / 5)
My first thought at 3:30 in the morning was that this would be a choice that would please my parents.  They're democrats, but not as progressive as they used to be.  So this would reenforce their choice to vote for Obama.
"the attack dog Obama will need" (4.00 / 2)
Amen. Who can forget the comment Biden made about Rudy Giuliani that the only sentence he knows is "subject, verb, and 9/11".
I hope we get to see (4.00 / 1)
a lot more of that Biden in the next few months.

Montani semper liberi
[ Parent ]
Looking Forward (4.00 / 1)
I am eagerly looking forward to seeing Biden repeatedly poke fun at McCain for not knowing how many houses he owns, thinking the cutoff for being middle class is $5M, and being best buddies with Mr. "Nation of Whiners" who thinks the recession is just psychological.

Would I want to ever sit down and have a drink with Joe Biden? No. I think the man is loathesome, and I'd have to hide my money in my sock before going anywhere near him. He's an arrogant, obnoxious, overbearing, treacherous jerk. But, my gosh, it's going to be fun watching him be an arrogant, obnoxious, overbearing, treacherous jerk to McCain (and Romney) over the next few months. You watch how far Biden crawls under their skin. With McCain's short temper? Oh my! Get the popcorn.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So, I guess us and Joe Biden are pals now.

[ Parent ]
Let's hope that dog doesn't pee at the wrong tree (0.00 / 0)
But this probably won't happen, since Biden is a mainstream White Caucasian "who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy". Right?
:D
[ Parent ]
if (4.00 / 1)
he is such a good campaigner , why didnt his own presidential campaign garner any traction?

i think its a predictable choice, a boring choice, a choice that says "same old politics"

The thing that disappoints me about Biden (0.00 / 0)
is that he's too old to run for President unless Obama loses.  It would have made more sense to give this spotlight to someone in the party whose career needs a jumpstart.
I like the choice for that reason. (4.00 / 1)
   Assuming 8 years for Obama, we won't have to challenge a non-progressive vice president for the presidential nomination.  

John McCain lets lobbyists shape his economic policy
[ Parent ]
Agreed. (4.00 / 2)
I was afraid Obama would use his VP pick to anoint another centrist young enough to run in 2016, and we would've had to primary an incumbent.

Montani semper liberi
[ Parent ]
He might go from VP to Secretary of State (4.00 / 1)
Not to count our chickens but if Biden doesn't want to run (don't be so sure) he can move from VP to State in '12. Gov. Sebelius is term-limited out in 2010. So if Obama wants to set the table for long term progressive change he still has all the tools at his disposal to do so. Whether he does or not we can only wait and see.

John McCain
[ Parent ]
Biden will be a good surrogate for Obama | 74 comments
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