Vice President Biden?

Joe Biden: hell yeah, I'd be Obama's veep!

As I've said before, I think Biden is a great choice in theory -- an experienced hand, sensible on foreign affairs, forceful on the war on terror, etc. In practice, he's a bit trickier: he's as slippery and slimy a Washington insider as they come, which doesn't exactly jive with Obama's message of change, and he has a bad habit of putting his foot in his mouth. (See: "articulate and clean," Indians at 7-Eleven, etc.)

Still, since I ultimately rank national security and foreign policy as my #1 voting priority, I'd be reassured by Obama picking Biden. I kind of doubt it will happen, though, especially now that he seems almost to be campaigning for it.

Comments

[Associated Press]

BREAKING NEWS: COPNDOR WILL ACCEPT OBAMA'S VP POSITION IF ASKED, SOURCES SAY

[Joe Loy]

LOL, Associated Press :>

Sam Nunn. Sam Nunn. Sam Nunn. :)

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Speaking from a qualifications standpoint, Biden is a good choice. Speaking from a political standpoint, there is virtually no upside to Biden and a potentially large downside (his mouth). I like the guy, but given the tenor of this campaign, Obama would spend 90% of his time trying to clarify what Biden meant...something Obama hasn't demonstrated much skill at (e.g. Rev. Wright).

[copndor]

I neither confirm nor deny the report.

[Joe Loy]

We could easily have major-party tickets consisting of 4 incumbent United States Senators. / When has That happened?

[copndor]

I neither confirm nor deny the report.

[Jim Hu]

I subscribe to the various Sunday talking head podcasts on my iPod, but often don't listen to them until weeks or months later... it gives an interesting hindsight view of recent events. Regarding Biden, I was working in the garden and listening to him respond to that Bush statement in Israel that you were so bent out of shape about, and this jumped out.

BIDEN: In 1939, and then -- anytime you inject anywhere, but particularly in the Israeli Knesset the Holocaust, Nazi tanks crossing into Poland, Hitler -- I mean, it's just -- it was just above and beyond anything. I mean, everyone from Pat Buchanan to Republicans who -- and I respect Pat [emph added] -- that I respect, found it stunning.

I wonder if he respects pitchfork Pat in the morning.

I'm sure Obama could do much worse, but I hope he can do better than Biden. I've always thought Biden was more overrated than tOSU in a BCS championship game. Then again, I'm not a fan of most of the prominent Dems.

[coqndor]

Respecting Pat Buchanan is grounds enough to pass over [no pun intended] Biden.

[JD]

I saw Biden and Obama on the same day right before the caucuses. I was thoroughly impressed by Biden's command of the issues. (Not that I agree with him on all of them, but he was certainly, ahem, articulate.) Obama was a better speaker and said some good things too (at the time).

But the selection of Obama as the presidential candidate is a sign that the Democrats really don't care about experience this time around.

[Alasdair]

JD

If you respect Biden's "command of the issues", how many different folk was he channeling at that moment ?

This *is* the same Senator Biden who plagiarised Neil Pillock's speech, isn't he ? The speech of which the 'punch line' was basically "I'm the first in my family to complete college, the first in <improbably high number of generations - I seem to remember Neil Pillock used 1000 generations (25,000 years) - didn't Biden use 100 (2500 years)?> generations ... and why is that ? It can't be because I am thick (I think Biden used "stupid", instead), can it ?"

As a mainframe geek, I had to admire the sheer recursion of Biden choosing *that* speech to plagiarise ...

OY !

[JD]

If you respect Biden's "command of the issues", how many different folk was he channeling at that moment ?

Stealing from one is plagiarism. Stealing from many is research. ;-)

[Alasdair]

Thank you, Lobachevski !

(grin)

It remains a fact that plagiarising *that* Neil Pillock speech is/was recursive !