Obama picks Biden as VP
Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joe Biden as his Vice-Presidential candidate.
Biden is 65 years old and one of the more experiences Senators – especially in foreign policy. He sought the Democratic nomination 20 years ago in 1988 and was briefly a candidate this time also.
He entered the Senate when I was five years old – in 1973, so has served 36 years there. His age when elected, 30, is the constitutional minimum to be a Senator.
Unlike Obama (who was not in the Senate then), Biden voted in favour of the resolution authorising war in Iraq in 2002.
His 1988 presidental campaign was derailed by plagiarism scandals.
Often VP choices are made to balance the ticket – make it more electable. The Biden choice is of course also about electability, but more about negating fears of Obama’s inexperience that appealing to a specific demographic. It seems a pretty solid choice. The only downside is he undermines Obama’s brand as being about change, but I doubt it will seriously impact that.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
This really just shows how stupid the Left is, because people are automatically going to associate their names with O[s]ama Bi(n La)den. This will perhaps be the crucial factor which turns the tide of the election. Thank you ignorant idiots for allowing the Republicans another free ride into the White House, for fucks sake. How can anyone take the Democrats seriously ever again?
August 24th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Word is that McCain is being offered an easy ride in the media if he picks Lieberman. If people wonder how that can be then take a look at the ownership of said media.
So either way the US elect a zionist as VP – here’s Biden declaring himself as such. If McCain wins he won’t last long so Lieberman becomes Pres. How convenient.
We’ve all seen how “successful” the Israel-first neocon foreign policy driven by Cheney has been.
Expect therefore more of the same, and how wonderful will that be for the world?
August 24th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Oo, ooh, ooh! For once I get to be the first one to mention that his middle name is “Hussein” in a right-wing blog thread!
You can’t beat a foreign-sounding name as an easy means to discredit someone – especially among people who don’t like Johnny Foreigner very much
August 24th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Practically everyone in America has a funny sounding name RRM.
Biden is a doofus. His great contribution to foriegn policy was to propose an ethnically divided Iraq. with three autonomous regions. Not even the Kurds liked that idea.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
RRM>You can’t beat a foreign-sounding name as an easy means to discredit someone
This wasn’t a problem for Eisenhower, a German name for a General who defeated Nazi Germany and went on to be President. So why should it be an issue over 60 years later? I know that at least one Democrat senator was a senior figure in the KKK, but the Republicans aren’t known for their fear of foreigners or people with melanin.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Oh, and from PowerLine…
Crowley’s TNR profile concludes with a striking example of Biden’s foreign policy sophistication. In the wake of 9/11, in a meeting with his staff, Biden experienced an epiphany:
Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his [Senate Foreign Relations] committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: “I’m groping here.” Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we’re not bent on its destruction. “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran,” Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
The charlatan teams up with the plagiarizer. How appropriate.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Biden’s main problem is not that he plagiarized a Kinnock speech twenty years ago but that he doesn’t have a firm control over his mouth.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Middle names of successful presidential candidates since the war: S., David, Fitzgerald, Baines, Milhous, Rudolph, Earl, Wilson, Herbert Walker, Jefferson and Walker.
Middle names of failed presidential candidates since the war (excluding otherwise successful candidates): Edmund, Ewing, Morris, Horatio, Stanley, Frederick, another Stanley, Joseph, Arnold and Forbes.
August 24th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I agree with the Spectator when they say “Obama picked a Cheney when he needed a Gore”.
By picking Biden, Obama has admitted that he needs someone to hold his hand when it comes to dealing with foreign polcy. It has seriously compromised the change message – with Biden being in Washigton since 1972, he’s practically part of the furniture!
Obama’s selection of Biden has put no new states into play. Vermont is a solid democrat-voting state. Obama would’ve been better off to pick Bayh.
August 24th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Putting aside the plagiarism issue for one moment but one might have thought that Obama may have wanted to reach out to the South in order to add some geographic balance to his ticket. He hasn’t and in picking a Yankee from a small New England State he has probably alienated himself from that voting segment.
His choice also partially neutralises the age card. I can see McCain picking someone (much) younger than Biden and the symbolism of doing that will not be lost.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Much younger? Odds are saying that it’ll be Romney. Romney’s five years younger than Biden. Not that much.
However, I could be wrong. I was dead certain that Obama would pick Bayh, thinking that he wouldn’t be so stupid as to pick Biden, and look what happened. Just shows that sometimes you can’t underestimate the stupidity of some democrats.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Whats more interesting is the fact that Hillary was not only not chosen but not even vetted or considered. That will go down like a cup of cold sick with her followers. Of interest also was the shambolic stumble to the announcement. The Obama campaign had been playing a cock tease all week about the announcement, had promised a text/email rollout with maximum fan fare and ended up being outed by CNN after the Friday news cycle and hastily sent the text messages AT 3 AM Sat when everyone’s out enjoying a sunny warm weekend or watching the Olympics.
Biden is not a game changing pick like Clinton would’ve been (or Sibelius – KS Governor). His foreign policy credentials are not stellar but certainly outshine Obama’s, he’s a notorious serial gaffe maker (as is Obama) and is a quintessential Washington insider with numerous embarrassing lobbying connections. He brings no state to the table (Deleware being only 3 EC votes and reliably Democratic) whereas Bayh would’ve likely delivered Indiana (won by Bush in 04) – similarly Kaine would likely deliver another Bush 04 state – Virginia.
Obama’s stumbles over the Georgian crisis exposed his very real foreign policy weakness and the need to blunt McCain’s effective recent attacks with a rottweiller type like Biden I believe are the primary reasons for his Biden pick.
Any long standing senator is a pretty target rich environment due to all the votes cast on comtroversial measures – Biden offers a vast treasure trove of gaffes and blues that the McCain campaign will be pouring over. Most GOP insiders I’ve spoken to believe Obama could’ve made their life more difficult electorally with a Kaine (VA), Bayh (IN), Sebellius or Clinton (women) pick.
Much as I am a great Romney fan I believe McCain will pick Pawlenty. Lieberman, Rudy and Ridge are out because they are pro-choice. Palin is an outside chance but perhaps too risky when Obama did not make a risky pick. Jindal is still talked about but too young and inexperienced. Its definitely a two horse race between Pawlenty and Romney. The Republicans have the luxury of timing their announcement more carefully and I believe McCain will do it the day after Obama’s likely Messianic style speech at Invesco field to blunt the post-convention bounce.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Vermont is a solid democrat-voting state.
Biden is actually from Delaware.
and in picking a Yankee from a small New England State
Delaware isn’t a New England state – most of it lies south of the Mason-Dixon line.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Amusing how the Nat types back a party in the US that is elected by the
types who believe dubya has a direct line to god.
How long will it be until Power comes out saying where US troops go
ours will, soon one hopes.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
No Reb, it shows how stupid you are. By a country mile the dumbest blog comment of the day.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
No Reb, it shows how stupid you are. By a country mile the dumbest blog comment of the day.
And you not being able to see my sarcasm shows just how dumb you are… Retard.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
kiwi in america is right about the danger that picking Biden will simply underline Obama’s lack of experience. Though who else could he have picked who would be better? I think Gore would have been the smartest pick – he would have squared the circle of being both highly experienced and an agent of change.
I also agree that Pawlenty is the most likely pick for McCain – though for much the same reason as Obama has picked Biden: he is the “safe” choice. He will upset no-one, but despite all his good qualities, he is just another obscure politician to most people (even most Americans).
The really exciting (and game-changing) pick would be Meg Whitman. As a woman and a non-politician she could help McCain steal Obama’s change mantle. She would also help with McCain’s perceived weakness on teh economy. Rather a long shot though!
August 25th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Joe Biden? MATE, the columnists at the “National Review” and “Human Events” and “The Weekly Standard” are gonna have a field day. I suspect that none of the commentators on this thread so far realise just how much of a mushy lefty Biden is.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Couldn’t Barry find another kook who was against the liberation of Iraq?
August 25th, 2008 at 11:21 am
The biggest problem for Obama is that Biden said a few months ago that Obama’s not ready to be president and praised McCain.
Sure, if McCain picks Romney (which I predict), people will correctly say that they said a lot of negative things about each other. But Romney (to the best of my knowledge) never said McCain wasn’t fit to be president and he certainly wouldn’t have praised Obama.
I agree with s.russell that Whitman would be a game-changing pick, but having a political rookie “one heartbeat away from the presidency” might offset her huge upside. Palin would be a good choice too, but another long shot. Picking Lieberman, Ridge or Giuliani would be disastrous.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:27 am
IF ONLY McCain could pick Condi Rice as VP candidate – but apparently she is making herself unavailable.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Yep, I thought so – here is Ross Kaminsky in “Human Events”:
‘………Biden is in fact one of the most liberal members of the Senate, with the non-partisan National Journal raking him the third most liberal Senator (behind Barack Obama and Sheldon Whitehouse, and ahead of the self-avowed socialist, Bernie Sanders.) He ties several Senators as the most liberal on economic issues and has by far the most liberal voting record on foreign policy matters.
On the key domestic issues of the day, Biden’s positions are uniformly liberal: On energy, he wants to “prohibit price gouging, roll back market speculation, and take on OPEC”. And while he supports an “Apollo Project for energy” and such things as “green building codes”, “energy-efficient appliances”, and “requiring major gas stations to sell alternative fuels”, he opposes increasing offshore drilling and almost any other development of domestic gas and oil resources.
On taxes, Biden wants to “direct tax cuts away from the very rich to the middle class” and “expand the Earned Income Tax Credit”. In other words, he supports raising taxes on those who already pay almost all the income taxes collected in order to transfer money to those who pay little or no income tax.
Biden is a strong supporter of unions (and they are a strong supporter of him), including supporting “Card Check”, the unions’ attempt to eliminate the secret ballot requirement to unionize a company’s workers. In case Biden’s anti-business credentials weren’t clear, Biden has said that he “will make sure that pro-union officials play senior roles at the Departments of Commerce, State, Agriculture, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.”
Senator Obama knew that he needed an old white guy with foreign policy credentials to fill in his electoral gaps. Joe Biden is the perfect fit on that score, and his being Catholic was an added bonus for Obama. However, with economics surpassing foreign policy, even in these obviously dangerous times, as the subject voters are most concerned with, Biden’s selection is at best a neutral for the Democrats’ election prospects. (Obama’s choice of a running mate with no economic credentials may make Mitt Romney that much more compelling a selection for John McCain as Romney would be the only person on either tickets with a strong reputation for understanding business and economics.)
A potentially important piece of news near the end of the Veepstakes was that Hillary Clinton was never vetted. According to a Democratic official quoted at politico.com, “She was not asked for a single piece of paper. She and Senator Obama have never had a single conversation about it.” Given the raw nerves among Hillary supporters who feel that their history-making first-woman-president has been badly treated by Obama, one wonders why the Obama campaign wouldn’t have made a least a show of considering Hillary.
A July poll by CNN showed that nearly a third of Clinton supporters will not vote in November, and an August Wall Street Journal/NBC poll said that 21% of Clinton supporters will vote for McCain. Both of these results were worse for Obama than in recent prior polls. And that was before the news of Hillary being “dissed” in the VP selection process. The wounds may be ripped open again, rather than healed, at the Democratic National Convention because of the decision to allow a roll call vote to include Hillary, reminding many how close she came to being the nominee……..”
August 25th, 2008 at 11:55 am
So they counter McCain by making a McCain look-a-like their VP?
The universe and human stupidity.
Still not sure about the universe.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
EXCERPT: ‘SAFE’ PICK FOR TICKET LEAVES WOMEN SCORNED
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published in The New York Post on August 24, 2008.
“It doesn’t take a political genius to realize that Barack Obama needed to nominate a woman for vice president.
Obama’s key problem is that there is no gender gap. In the most recent Zogby poll, he runs only two points better among women than among men. A Democrat should be running 10 to 15 points better among women.
If Obama is to have a hope of winning, he needs to improve his performance among female voters. A Fox News poll indicated that only about half of those who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries are voting for Obama and that fully one in five plans to support John McCain.
Attractive to women voters because of his maverick positions on issues and his willingness to defy the Republican orthodoxy, McCain is garnering votes from women who should be part of Obama’s core constituency.
So why didn’t Obama name a woman? He couldn’t nominate Hillary because she came with so much baggage that he’d be spending his entire campaign swatting away charges directed at the Clintons. It would have been priceless to see Obama trying to justify Bill’s refusal to publish the names of the donors to his library or to explain what Bill is doing in Dubai and Kazakhstan.
But what about Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius? While not a national figure, she is attractive, articulate and would have made a fine candidate.
However, Obama was terrified that the Clintons would wreak vengeance if he named a woman other than Hillary. Yet it was all a bluff. Hillary’s delegates would have celebrated the selection of a woman………
………..Obama did not choose a woman. He needed one.
Now, John McCain can take advantage of Obama’s blunder by coming back with a female nominee for vice president. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison would be an excellent choice. She’s been around for decades and is not going to start making mistakes now……..”
As I keep saying, what a pity Condi Rice won’t step forward…….
August 25th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Phil – Heh, I too quite like the idea of Rice being elected as McCain’s VP… then McCain falls over and dies a couple of months in.
Result: First black, woman President of the US is a REPUBLICAN – ha! Who’d have thought eh?
August 25th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I agree with Reb.
before whenever I saw the word Obama, it didn’t really trigger anything, but now Obama + Biden, that just screams Osama bin Laden. Just watch their poll ratings…
August 25th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
McCain and Rice? does McCain do rice, or just chips and frozen veg? Maybe I’m thinking of Uncle Ben’s
August 25th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Dick Morris has dreamed of Rice on the ticket now for years and even wrote a best selling book predicting a Clinton v Rice race in 08. Rice has unequivocally ruled herself out so it remains a pipe dream. I believe that the latest McCain ads using Biden’s negative comments about Obama from the primaries show he’s decided against Romney. The Obama campaign could easily fashion an ad in similar vein vis-a-vis McCain v Romney. Baring a surprise pick like Powell (still being whispered about), my money’s on Pawlenty.
Interestingly – the latest CNN poll (taken after the Dems Veep anouncement) is showing no uptick from the Biden pick (same with Gallup’s daily tracking poll) and, more significantly, CNN showing the number of Clinton supporters backing Obama dropping from 75% last month to 66% now and the numbers of Clintonites supporting McCain growing from 16% to 27%! These figures are very ominous news for the Obama camp (you listening philu). Morris highlights Obama’s incredible weakness with the women vote. The Dems normally counteract the GOP strength with the male vote with an almost equally large gender gap with women. The PUMAS are preventing this from happening.
Interesting also to note that if you combine all the EC maps from the 5 pollsters keeping track into a poll of polls of the EC Map pollsters, it shows McCain moving into a slight EC vote lead for the first time. Close polls in VA, NM and CO mean a very slight movement in favour of one candidate sees the EC advantage change. For a charismatic Hope and Change candidate like Obama, he should be crushing McCain. McCain will likely announce his veep pick the morning after Obama’s Invesco Field mega speech thus blunting the media coverage and eating into the Dems post-convention bounce. On recent experience, Obama’s negatives and McCain’s in-your-face ads have meant only small and temporary bounces from his nomination, his blanket coverage overseas tour and now his VP pick. If I were Axlerod and Pouffle, I’d be very worried. Watch for the Clinton’s to damn Obama with faint praise in Denver thanks to Obama’s foolish decision to listen to his wife and not even go through the motions of vetting Clinton.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:08 am
RRM, I have been saying all along that I believe that the first black president of the USA will be a Republican, and likewise the first woman president.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
kia,
I believe that the latest McCain ads using Biden’s negative comments about Obama from the primaries show he’s decided against Romney. The Obama campaign could easily fashion an ad in similar vein vis-a-vis McCain v Romney.
As I said above, the nature of the disagreements between McCain and Romney is quite different from the Biden-Obama exchanges. McCain and Romney disagreed on policy etc; Biden said Obama isn’t ready to lead and praised McCain as recently as last year. The average voter might miss the subtle difference, though, so it may well be risky.
But I’ve been picking Biden and Romney as VPs for months, so I won’t change my selections now.
Any chance McCain announces his running mate a couple of hours before Obama’s coronation at Invesco Field?
August 27th, 2008 at 7:42 am
I was hoping for Kucinich, but Biden’s going to work out for us just fine. Yesterday, he called Barak Obama three different names — I guess he just can’t remember what it is.