blogwatch
26 Aug 2008
Hello, Biden
Bam Bam and Bi Bi
Who is Joe Biden? We head to the blogs for some dirt on Barack Obama's preferred VP
Barack Obama has spent the last year trading on his status as a youthful Washington outsider who is committed to changing the system of the old guard - which is presumably why he has chosen a 65-year-old Senator who has been in office since 1972 as his running mate.Over the weekend Obama announced that Senator Joe Biden, who is a relative unknown to the American public despite his long history in Washington, would be his vice presidential candidate. Voters who may not have even noticed Biden's short candidacy for the Democratic nomination have already been swamped with coverage of the five-term Senator from Delaware, and Democrats are confident they'll like what they see.
Even former Hilary Clinton strategist and Communications Director Howard Wolfson seems to think the safe choice was strategic, because "Obama brings plenty of change and excitement on his own":
The fighting in Georgia underscored the need to bring some foreign policy experience to the ticket ... It's critical that the veep be willing and able to take an axe or at least an ice pick to the presidential candidate of the other party ... Senator Obama also needs to improve his performance with lunch bucket and working class Democrats. Biden has spent his career appealing to those voters ... The Obama campaign clearly made the decision that they did not need their veep pick to reinforce their change message, and that was a smart move.
HuffPo's Andy Worthington is impressed with Biden's record on foreign affairs. While it's "far from unblemished" (he initially supported the rush to war), "He has since recanted his position on the Iraq war, and has, for many years, also been unafraid to tackle other excesses of the Bush Administration's post-9/11 policies; in particular, through his persistent calls for the closure of the "War on Terror" prison at Guantánamo Bay."
In 2006 he proposed, with Leslie Gelb, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a five-point plan for the future of Iraq, which called for a federalised system of three regional governments (Kurd, Sunni and Shiite) plus a centralised government for the management of "truly common interests" like oil and border defence.
Also on Huffpo, Thomas Edsall is less impressed by Biden's credentials, claiming that the Delaware Senator "carries some baggage, including two alleged incidents of plagiarism; an episode of resume inflation; a tendency to shoot from the mouth - only sometimes on target". Edsall also notes that Biden has "the dubious distinction of becoming the first national party nominee with known hair plugs".
"That said, the Biden choice is likely to be far less consequential to the outcome on Election Day than the current flurry of commentary suggests," he writes.
In an ad put up on Saturday, McCain shows Biden on July 19, 2007 on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos: "You were asked is [Obama] ready. You said ‘I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.'" Biden: "I think that I stand by the statement."
It's doubtful, however, that Biden's campaign critiques of Obama will be held against him: every time a nominee has chosen a primary opponent to join the ticket (Reagan-Bush, Kerry-Edwards), the opposition has tried to use attacks made in the heat of campaigning, almost always to little effect.
Edsall ultimately concludes that Biden is a good choice, but not particularly decisive in the contest for the presidency.
Some though, are less concerned with the bi-partisan fun run, and more concerned with the voting records and ideological positions of their would-be VP.
Feministing recalls Biden's claim that Obama is "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy", and his incisive comment that "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent".
He also has a "not-so-hot record on choice":
He says he supports Roe vs Wade, but is not really interested in expanding access to low-income women. (He has, however, voted to expand contraception access.) He voted for legislation banning dilation and extraction abortions, but criticised the Supreme Court decision upholding the law. He has voted against parental consent and notification laws, and laws banning minors from crossing state lines to obtain an abortion. [Pro-choice organisation] NARAL gave him a 60 per cent approval rating in 2007.
The analysis concludes on a note that is becoming familiar among the ever-more cynical American left: reluctant disappointment in the energetic Democrat's political choices.
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Amazing to watch the ignorance of the voting Americans as none wonder why Obama hides his father while McCain parades his 90 year old Mom.
In any state of the USA Obama’s father would have been incarcerated for statutory rape.
How many know that the Luo tribe of Kenya are the most hated tribe in their region? Why? Because of their infamous partnership with Muslim and Morano slave traders who "bought" hundreds of thousands of Africans captured by the hated Luo tribe and shipped them off to slavery. Still hated today for their genocidal Stalinist tendencies the Luo tribe are the forgotten link in Africa’s slave trade.
Also, does anybody actually know what Obama’s election platform actually is? Through all the small talk and the rhetoric does anybody actually know what Obama is all about? From increased taxes and expanded USA war is he any better than the Republican’s McCain?
The disturbing thing is that both candidates appear to be morally flawed, psychologically flawed, intellectually flawed men with tendencies towards delusional thinking.
Democratic party loser, Hillary, invited the English Rothschilds to attend the Democratic Convention in Denver too. "Friends of hers".
They are said to oppose Obama greatly for President. Ah, the ancient Talmudic belief about ‘kushites’, is eternal. Well the Rothschilds are in Denver for the week, and I bet Hillary gets Secretary of State. Obama best not think she’s going to turn her team of fanatics over to him for a goose egg. What Hillary wants Hillary typically gets.
Obama or McCain, the next Presidential term is promising to be a very bad time for the world, and people across the globe instinctively know that the next 4 years is going to be one heck of a rough ride.
Biden, while not my favorite choice is definitely a better choice than many others Obama could have made. If you want a well written primer on Obama’s position, read download "A Blueprint for Change" from http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/.
He actually seems to have a plan that runs along the lines of trying to develop economic growth by heavily investing in "green" R&D. He has a solid plan for sourcing the budgetary needs by pushing the currently regressive tax structure back to a more progressive system adding points on the largest balances where they count more. Which should effectively move the burden of financing the federal government and the way more onto the backs of the wealthy and lifting some of the pressure from the middle class. His education reform plans indicates a willingness to explore more progressive education techniques to improve national academic performance. Obama also has a plan for nationalized health care which would be great for people in places like New York who face premiums of 200-500/mo for health insurance.
The information available on McCain’s positions is terribly organized and mostly gives a very rough overviews of how a McCain administration would handle the issues and none of the proposals really have the apparent synergy that stands out in Obama’s proposals.
On the choice of VP…
In Joe Biden we get a proponent of the war on drugs being pulled out of a law making position. We get an individual with extensive foreign relations expertise who knows the players involved personally. We get a crass everyman who appeals to voting blocs that Obama doesn’t. I don’t think you can say it is just a strategic decision. It is a wise decisions considering the immense amount of work that is going to go into cleaning up after the Bush administration’s policies of pre-emptive warfare, unilateral engagement, and unwillingness to communicate.
but frankly it’s not hard to look good after 8 years of gwbush running roughshod over the world, no matter who your VP is.
George,
I’m lost for words at your racism - that the historical sins of a particular ‘tribe’ are passed genetically on to Obama. And in case you don’t know it yet, Obama’s father has been dead for thirty five years or so.
Unbelievable. Where are NM’s thought police when you need them ?
Biden has one totally irrelevant characteristic: he was born in the lower 48 states. I don’t know where Sarah Palin was born, but McCain was born in Panama and of course Obama in Hawai’i. I’ll leave to the courts the ruling on whether McCain can stand for presidential office, since the Canal Zone was not part of the US back in 1936: in fact, if he had been born in Hawai’i or Alaska, he may not have been eligible either.
Joe