My initial thoughts on Obama picking Joe Biden for VP…
Posted by MJ on August 23, 2008
Barack Obama, who apparently is not a slave to the media sent the text message informing his supporters that he selected Sen. Joe Biden for his running mate not until the early AM hours today. They have already wrapped up their first appearance together in Springfield, Illinois and will not be seen again until the Democratic National Convention in Denver next week.
Obama obviously choose experience over continuing the newness theme in picking Joe Biden. I personally would have preferred someone who was also against the war in Iraq from the beginning, a non-Washington insider, not another senator, and a new face to complement Obama. After saying that, I can’t argue against the pick of Joe Biden who I think can be trusted for good advice on foreign policy matters and to add toughness to the Obama Campaign going into November. He gives people thinking about voting for Obama a familiar face which adds a certain stability to the campaign and lets not forget about the Catholic vote. The adding of a older white male face to the ticket may also help ease the mind of some voters who care about things like that.
I am happy Obama did not pick Sen. Hillary Clinton or Rep. Chet Edwards as a surprise choice. I would have supported Ms. Clinton if she had won the Democrat nomination but her time has passed. Obama and Clinton would be a good match up for winning the Presidency but don’t think they would have good chemistry later in the White House. I just don’t see Hillary playing second fiddle to anyone. Unfortunately, this means we have not heard the last from the crazy PUMA people. If Obama had choose a guy named Chet from Texas then I would have had to question what he is doing all together and maybe take a look at Nader.
What do my readers think about Obama’s choice?
I do have some advice for John McCain on who he should be looking at for his VP if he wants to have any chance of winning. He should not be listening to the social conservative Christian block and just pick someone to appease them. The strategy he should be following is try to capture as many as possible of the moderate Democrats and Republicans who just don’t want to vote for Obama for one reason or another (he’s Black). Choosing a social conservative for his running mate would be the kiss of death for McCain. The country is moving in a different direction and McCain needs to also if he envisions himself with a chance of winning this election.
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Rutherford said
MJ, I can’t argue with anything you’ve said. In particular, Biden will add much needed bite to Obama’s campaign and (I’ve already seen this) embolden Obama himself to go after McCain stronger.
As for the Republicans, wow are they in a fix! After the “can’t remember how many houses I have” episode, how can McCain choose rich boy Romney as a running mate? Polenty is booooooooring. Lieberman will be the kiss of death. One pundit today spouted the name of Carly Fiorina …. holy cow! And folks say Obama lacks experience! What in the world does that say about Carly? She couldn’t run HP and now we put her second in line to run the country? Tom Ridge may end up being McCain’s only real option but Ridge’s pro-choice stance (which no doubt he will tone down for the sake of the campaign) will still piss off the religious right.
Barack can forget the hard core bigots. No Veep pick will bring them on board. But hopefully, Biden can sway some of the fence sitting bigots who are more “backward” than really stone cold racists. If that can happen, Obama may indeed end up the next President of the United States.
solar1 said
I can’t argue with Biden bringing some experience and stability to the Obama campaign, but I am not as sure that Obama has made that brilliant of a choice. How can Obama be the candidate of change when he has a VP with more experience in Washington than McCain? I think that though Clinton would have killed any chance of more independent voters, Biden may have just put a large dent in the “Change” message.
McCain can no longer be attacked for a Washington insider. He’s not the only old guy in the race. Or the only insider.
Rutherford, I hope you didn’t really mean that all people not accepting Obama with open arms are bigots. Or that anyone who won’t vote for him are “stone cold racists”.
Rutherford said
Solar1, no of course not. But clearly a major part of Biden’s role will be to bring along the “old” white blue collar voter who has for “undefined reasons” not yet embraced Obama. Lots of people have lots of reasons to oppose Obama, but race is definitely among the leading factors, albeit unspoken in most cases.
solar1 said
I don’t think race is among the leading factors against Obama, it has helped his career a lot. Age and experience would be the two issues I would think Biden will help with.
MJ "revoltingpawn" said
Solar1…
I disagree that race is not a leading factor with people deciding not to vote for Obama. It is well known that most bigots and racists are part of the poor white blue collar demographic. I live in Buffalo, NY and you can’t get more Democratic and we have plenty of poor white hard working folks here. I can’t count how many people have over heard in public or even among friends who uttered the name Obama shorty followed by word n*gger. It only gets worse as you head down south.
Age and experience in most cases are just a excuses to not to vote for Obama when really less political correct reasons are the issue. Age is a issue with Obama? He is 47 not 27 and is only young compared to McCain. Age is a factor for McCain since his health would be a factor in finishing one stressful term.
Experince? How come experience was not a factor when George Bush ran? I don’t think George worked a real job until he was over 30. I don’t even think having a lot of experience is key but if you had successful experiences. Obama has been successful his entire life while George failed in the Texas Air Guard (AWOL, refused drug test), mixed record on oil companies he started (bankrupted number of them), and was an average Governor of Texas at best. He was the black sheep of the Bush family and was a drunk (or still is). The result of all that was continuing failure as our President.
solar1 said
I don’t believe that race is that hurtful for Obama, I could be wrong though.
I agree that they are not good reasons to not vote for someone, nut they must be put into the picture of who this guy is. He has made some poor choices (everyone has, but Obama’s haven’t been “I’m wrong, sorry,” they’ve been “This is not the man I’ve known for 20 years”) and he has never made a lefe-or-death type political decision. Don’t forget all those times he voted “present”, or the times that he voted one way, and then asked that it be officially recorded as a mistake, he didn’t mean to say what he did. Doctors also say that McCain is in perfect health.
Bush had executive experience as a Texas governer, and as a buisness executive. He understood important decisions. You say he has been a failure as a president, I think it is unwise to judge the service of a president at least until his term is over and all the Democrat-Republican fighting over him is over so we can look at the facts only.
MJ "revoltingpawn" said
Solar1…
I just like to point out that McCain’s release of his medical records was not to the public…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/30/01927/4369/866/521866
The man is 71 years old and he does not look like he in perfect health to me. Four stressful years as President is known to age a man 10 years. Don’t forget about the questions on his mental health and the alarming number of senior moments he has had on the campaign trail.
I have seen enough facts on the record of George Bush and already feel his should be impeached now. I have said before just wait when he is out office and even more bad stuff about him comes out. People will be pissed…