Obama’s pick: why, it’s the Democratic McCain!
My title is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, of course. But it did occur to me, watching clips of Joe Biden late last night, that Obama’s new running mate is the closest thing to John McCain that Obama could have found in the Democratic Party. After all, he’s been in the Senate forever, is strongest on foreign policy, feisty, sports sparse white hair (and skip the joshing about the plugs; I think the transplant looks pretty darn good at this point, although it went through some strange transitional phases over the years), and is not exactly a spring chicken.
Obama’s first big and visible executive decision was supposed to show us how he’d function as President. If so, his supporters can’t be too happy, and if you look at this roundup of opinions from here and there you’ll see there’s a sort of faint praise thing going on. Not to mention the PUMAs, who must wonder why he dissed Hillary to come up with this Washington-insider fellow who brings them—Delaware.
My personal hunch, based on nothing at all except the long delay that it took (as commenter “huxley” wrote here—“for the mountain to bring forth this molehill”), is that Obama’s first choice may have said “no.”
I have believed for some time that Hillary Clinton would have been the best, and perhaps even an unbeatable, selection for VP. That Obama failed to pick her may merely mean that he disagrees with me, and perhaps he’s right to do so. Or, it may mean he felt just couldn’t work with her no matter what her advantages might be, or that Michelle just couldn’t stand her, or that Bill Clinton was too hostile to have around.
But another thing it may mean is that Obama tried to get her, but that she wouldn’t have him. As I first wrote back on June 3, and then again this past Wednesday, even if offered the spot Hillary might Just Say No, if she determined she’d be better off not hitching her wagon to this particular (falling) star, and instead waiting in the Senate for another crack at the Presidency in 2012.
Who knows what went down in the weeks and days leading up to this anticlimax? Not I. But one thing I do know is that, as a non-Obama supporter the result cheered me, because I don’t think it enhances his chances to win.
As I wrote here, the Vice-Presidency has famously been compared unfavorably to a bucket of warm piss—or, in the slightly expurgated version of the quip, a pitcher of warm spit. Whatever the figure of speech, the point is that it’s not an appetizing beverage—except perhaps for Dick Cheney, who with the help of George Bush made it into a more nourishing drink for himself. But to Joe Biden, whose long-held Presidential aspirations have gone exactly nowhere, and whose days were probably going to be finished out in more of the same-old same-old in the Senate, it probably looked like a pretty good deal.
I too wonder why all the delays and secrecy in Obama’s VP pick. I agree that Obama/Cllinton would have been a formidable ticket, but I think their relationship is too broken–it would have been impossible from both sides.
It will be interesting to read how this VP choice was made in books written on the campaign. I think there is more to the story.
the Vice-Presidency has famously been compared unfavorably to a bucket of warm piss
Ow. My virgin ears!
Great minds . . . . This morning I suggested to a friend that Biden was the only Big Name who didn’t say no, just that simple.
It looks like BO is going to use Biden for blue collar creds and not for foreign policy judgement. Biden’s dig about which one of his 7 kitchen tables McCain would sit at was pretty trashy. McCain is going to have to find a way to show that lots of Obama supporters (think Hollywood) have multiple luxurious residences, but that many of them want the ordinary taxpayer to pay for their pet projects. After all, how many voluntarily pay higher income taxes than they have to. McCain has to turn the talk from poor versu rich to who do you want to control your life. Toilet paper police, anyone?
He’s the democratic version of McCann, lol — so true and revealing!!
heavens.
Biden even has the blonde, bombshell of a wife.
He DID pick McCain as his running mate!
Wait till Bidens views on GUns gets out. That is not going to be a great thing in certain areas of the country including swing states
BO and Hillary have too much history now.
Even if BO could be assured that Bill and Hill would behave themselves, and not publicly wrong-foot Obama (and that’s a very big “if”), it still wouldn’t work. Given the bad blood between them, anything that worked to the detriment of one over the other would be interpreted as treachery, rightly or wrongly. That’s no way to work.
Well, at least Obama vetted Biden–presumably–for electroshock treatments, unlike poor old George McGovern when he unwittingly tapped Tom Eagleton for VP. After that, it was all downhill for McGovern.
This may be Obama’s Eagleton moment.
With the selection of Joe, B.O. with his usual “audacity”, has shown his true interest, getting elected at any cost, and Biden his lack of integrity, since it has, after all, not been all that long since Joe gave B.O. the compliment of being “clean”, at least… From Carter to Pelosi to Howie to Teddie to Soros to Gore, what an incredible menagerie of dishonest, duplicitous, opportunistic, erratic and incompetent blowhards, shallow left-wing fools and crass hypocrites the dimocrats have morphed into the last several decades… It’s the europeanization of American culture, no wonder the jihadis are licking their chops.
Little correction to the last sentence above, please… It’s the europeanization of American culture, no wonder Putin, the Communist Chinese and the jihadis are licking their chops…
Dear Neo,
I have thought for many years (60 or so) that elections are determined more by negatives than positives. Obama was right in rejecting Hillary. He’s in a world of hurt and his best strategy is to not present more targets. Apparently he didn’t realize that Biden is a pretty big target himself.
Regards,
Roy
The hostility aside between Obama and Hillary she would be a terrible choice for him as VP. Not in the electable sense – I think that would be great, but just that the way she is, her supporters are, and Obama’s general lack of forcefulness she would have run roughshod over him. I am pretty sure that he realizes it (Hillary said there was no real contact over it and I see no reason to believe otherwise).
In fact, that in general makes it hard for Obama to pick a candidate. To really fit with him he would need a Washington outsider with name recognition that had just enough “experience” in government to help with the “no experience” problem he had yet not enough over shadow him. Further he needed said candidate to appeal to a different demographic than he does as he is pretty much and “all or nothing” in each demographic.
That person doesn’t exist. He *has* to have someone with experience so they have to be a Washington insider. Further he has to be real careful that he doesn’t pick someone that will greatly overshadow him – real hard to do. Those two are a main priority and there are some out there that fit that. In fact there are some Governors out there that would also bring in a few fairly large demographics (Bill Richardson comes to mind here).
but then I can’t really see them attaching themselves to Obama. They are amongst the democrats that realize that he has no where to go but down and you don’t attach your anchor to a sinking ship.
So yes, I am fairly sure that Biden wasn’t remotely his first choice – Biden brings *nothing* positive to the table and only negatives (if Obama hadn’t been pushing the “different candidate” so hard the attack dog mentality would have helped, now it just makes him look even more hypocritical than ever). Even his biggest supporters know this – it’s been *more* than enough time to figure out how to spin even a remotely decent pick and they still haven’t found one yet.
I guess at least Biden isn’t going to overshadow him, even amongst the general democrats he is seen as something of a crank.
Now, lets see who McCain is going to pick. As I have said for ages Obama can not win the election but McCain is perfectly capable of loosing it. McCain has enough neutral to good choices it *should* be hard to pick, but I have all the faith in the world he could pick a pro-abortion, anti-gun, big government vice president in an attempt to “bridge the gap” and loose too many reluctant supporters.
Obama is so inexperienced that an experienced veep will effectively be running things. Obama needs someone he can dominate. That someone is not, and probably never will be, Shrillary.
Obama is so inexperienced that an experienced veep will effectively be running things.
Which is ironic given that the Dems have been saying for eight years that Cheney was running the country with the imbecile Bush as his puppet. You know, as if it was a bad thing.
So, where’s The Change?
> is strongest on foreign policy
Yeah, but he’s always WRONG… lol.
“I told you guys to go get me the guy who had the most experience with foreign policy… I thought you’d have sense enough to know I meant the guy who had the most experience being right, dammit!”