Joe Biden to be Obama's Veep: Republicans Rejoice

Barack Obama continues to star in the DNC remake of "A Comedy of Errors" as he selects Joe Biden (D-DE) to be his running mate in the upcoming election.

An amusing observation on this pick; it blunts the attack by the Obama Campaign repeatedly against John McCain, that McCain was on the wrong side of the decision to vote to go to war against Saddam Hussein, Biden voted with McCain on the resolution. So...it begs the question, if McCain (and Biden) made the wrong judgment in voting for the Iraq War Resolution, then what does that say about Obama's decision to select Biden as a running mate?

As for Biden, he is an absolute gift to Senator McCain's campaign. His mouth outstrips his brain so frequently, that he has been called a "gaff machine." He described Senator Obama as:

"the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

and in another racist gaff:

"In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking,"

Such comments have long been fodder for his political opponents.

More to the point, Obama has been the target of that same self-absorbed, arrogant, and often mean-spirited tongue. Those comments will come back to haunt him and Obama this fall. Statements such as his criticism of Barack's Iraq policies:

"My impression is he thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany" of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. "I've seen zero evidence of that."

These gaffs leave both senators vulnerable to attack from McCain.

Biden's own recommendation for Iraq was to effectively dismantle the nation and divide it into three separate "federations" along ethnic lines. Truthfully, his recommendation was far more reasonable than Obama's, but far more short-sighted and naive than Senator McCain's long fought for and now proven successful strategy of the troop surge.

Biden on Barack:

• "a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate."
• “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic" [on Iraq]
• “One thing is clear: These weapons must be must be dislodged from Saddam, or Saddam must be dislodged from power.” [Voting for the Iraq war]

Jim Gerhaty of NRO (National Review Online) provides a fairly comprehensive list of "Bidenisms" for the interested:

On McCain:

• Biden, on a post-debate appearance on MSNBC, October 30, 2007: “The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”
• Biden appearing on The Daily Show, August 2, 2005: “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be well off no matter who...”
• On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005: “I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.”
  
  On Obama:
• Reacting to an Obama speech on counterterrorism, August 1, 2007: “‘Look, the truth is the four major things he called for, well, hell that’s what I called for,’ Biden said today on MSNBC’s Hardball, echoing comments he made earlier in the day at an event promoting his book at the National Press Club. Biden added, ‘I’m glad he’s talking about these things.’”
• Also that day, the Biden campaign issued a release that began, “The Biden for President Campaign today congratulated Sen. Barack Obama for arriving at a number of Sen. Biden’s long-held views on combating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” That release mocked Obama for asking about the “stunning level of mercury in fish” and asked about a proposal for the U.S. adopt a ban on mercury sales abroad at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
• Assessing Obama’s Iraq plan on September 13, 2007: “My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”
• Speaking to the New York Observer: Biden was equally skeptical — albeit in a slightly more backhanded way — about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
• Also from that Observer interview: “But — and the ‘but’ was clearly inevitable — he doubts whether American voters are going to elect ‘a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,’ and added: ‘I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.’”
• Around that time, Biden in an interview with the Huffington Post, he assessed Obama and Hillary Clinton: “The more people learn about them (Obama and Hillary) and how they handle the pressure, the more their support will evaporate.”
• December 11, 2007: “If Iowans believe campaign funds and celebrity will fix the debacle in Iraq, put the economy on track, and provide health care and education for America’s children, they should support another candidate,” said Biden for President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro. “But I’m confident that Iowans know what I know: our problems will require experience and leadership from Day One. Empty slogans will be no match for proven action on caucus night.”
• Also that night, Biden said in a campaign ad, “When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”
• September 26, 2007: Biden for President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro said, “Sen. Obama said he would do everything possible to end the war in Iraq and emphasized the need for a political solution yet he failed to show up to vote for Sen. Biden’s critical amendment to provide a political solution in Iraq.
• December 26, 2006: “Frankly, I think I’m more qualified than other candidates, and the issues facing the American public are all in my wheelbarrow.”

See the full list.

The man is a font of quotable material, most of it to the detriment of the Obama/Biden hopes of winning the 2008 Presidential Election.

This predilection of his to speak out of turn is a certain sign of his arrogance. That arrogance, which he shares with Obama, has been evident throughout his career in the U.S. Senate. Biden has always believed himself far cleverer than he is.

He is known for his long, rambling, condescending, speeches in committee hearings, in which he attempts to trap witnesses with the transparent ruse of complementing them and seemingly agreeing with them right before he asks what he thinks will be (but rarely is) a devastating question; a performance which has long since lost its charm and become hollow and tiresome rather than witty. He routinely performs this act while donning a frozen, meaningless smile, more reminiscent of a fox stalking his prey, than a senator interested in discovering the truth.

So what do other Democrats think of Joe Biden? Democratic Pollster Geoff Garin said of Biden,

"The basic rap against Biden is that he's a candidate of style, not substance."

Well that makes two of them.

It will be fun to watch to whom Joe Biden (a.k.a. "The Plagiarizer") will turn for his rhetorical gems. The search engines are replete with references to Biden's penchant for pirated prose. Will it be more tales from former British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock's biography, or will it be a few unattributed pages of the Syracuse law review?

I'll end this blog with a great quote from Walter Shapiro in his Sep. 28, 1987 article on Biden (my emphasis added):

"In the end, Biden may be remembered as the candidate who truly offered the voters an echo and not a choice."

Wahoo! Break out the popcorn, this convention is going to be a hoot.

Oh yeah, and don't be surprised if we come out of this convention with Hillary Clinton being the nominee of the Democrat Party. Since Obama began his slide in the polls, I have detected a bit of "buyer's remorse" in Obama's committed "super delegates." Remember, they are technically free to change their minds at any time in the convention. The die is not cast until Obama actually gets enough delegate votes to win the nomination.

I doubt that his doubters would have the guts to make such a choice since it would alienate a great many African American voters, but it is still an outside chance worth remembering.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!!

What do you think?

To leave your opinion click on the word "COMMENT(S)" below