Biden doesn't live in Washington DC, FWIW

AP says it's Biden.

CNN and MSNBC reporting it as well.

biden to read the divine comedy and analyze the prose at the vp debate

Mistake. Obama's message is that we need an outsider who won't accept business as usual. How can he call McCain an insider when he chooses a guy whose been there longer than McCain? How is John McCain part of the problem and Joe Biden isn't? He can't say experience doesn't matter. Choosing Biden admits a weakness rather than shoring one up.

Of course if McCain picks Romney it's equally stupid. Romney's no maverick. If people thought McCain was rich and out of touch adding someone wealthier is only going to make him harder for people to relate to.

Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/us/po ... gYKEV1SIBg

So... he totally "lost control of the process": it leaked late tonight rather than tomorrow. No PR handbook would suggest that news is supposed to be released at 1am on a Saturday morning.

In the larger scheme, though, I have trouble believing that matters to anybody outside of those who follow this stupid crap so obsessively as to dwell on "political stagecraft." I think--and again I largely blame the Clintons and Bushes for this--that stuff has come to overshadow the substance.

And on the substance, I think Biden's a pretty solid pick. The objections to him, at least in lefty (because they're easily offended) and pundit (because they're even more easily distracted) circles, will revolve around "he said X dumbass thing in 1979 or 1988 or 2005 or in February." As if every public figure hasn't said dumbassed things. The guy sends a signal to certain groups of voters that Obama's "change" isn't revolutionary and scary, it's grounded in previous traditions. (Expect to hear Biden presented as a throwback to the Dems of the 1960s and '70s, not the special-pleader activists but the "regulars" who had a sense of fair play, moderate-to-hawkish political instincts, and a focus on the pocketbook issues of their constituents.) And the blunt/artless remarks, while they might wrinkle noses at Daily Kos, might also actually send a positive signal to a lot of Americans who certainly don't consider themselves bigots, but have made the occasional dumbassed remark.

The only other thing about it is that, a bit like Bush picking Cheney in 2000, it also sends the signal that this is a confident nominee who's looking ahead to governing rather than trying to win one state. Picking (say) Kaine or Bayh might (or might not) have broadened Obama's electoral-map appeal, but don't deepen that appeal. Biden might do that by, say, tempering the trepidation of older voters.

And he's going to be a hell of an attack dog, which will help--if just by giving the mainstream press more shiny things to jump after.

Laexile wrote:Mistake. Obama's message is that we need an outsider who won't accept business as usual. How can he call McCain an insider when he chooses a guy whose been there longer than McCain? How is John McCain part of the problem and Joe Biden isn't? He can't say experience doesn't matter. Choosing Biden admits a weakness rather than shoring one up.

Of course if McCain picks Romney it's equally stupid. Romney's no maverick. If people thought McCain was rich and out of touch adding someone wealthier is only going to make him harder for people to relate to.

you'd have said it was a mistake no matter who he picked.

Marc Ambinder has some good observations:

This is a formidable ticket, and a risky ticket, and not a comfort zone choice for Obama.

Put aside the obvious: Biden has foreign policy meat on his bones...He's a great debater... he has a working-class Scranton-bred Irish-Catholic heritage...he knows Washington very well...he has known tragedy in his life...
...
Biden premised his presidential candidacy on the notion that Obama was unqualified and not ready from day one. You can expect that the McCain campaign or the RNC will run a national television advertisement featuring Biden's many and various quotations to this effect.

I gather that what impressed Obama about Biden is that Biden gets things done. He's a man of action. He's not a [BS artist]. I also get the sense that Biden, 65, is pretty well aware that, at age 73 in eight years, he's not going to be a viable presidential choice, and thus convinced Obama that because the vice presidency would be his terminal position, the famous Biden ego will take a subordinate role.

I gather that Obama realizes that he needed a pick that would demonstrate some level of intellectual seriousness about the condition of the world. One of his sons heads for Iraq soon. Obama knows that, for Biden, getting Iraq right is much more than just about proving a point.
...
Some liberals think he's a bully who got the Iraq war wrong (although Biden did try to pass a less bellicose resolution.) . But I suspect that the general response from Democrats will be "Great choice."
...
That Obama (apparently) picked him demonstrates a recognition that the Democratic ticket ought to be more than just about Obama's personality... or a statement of bipartisan pragmatism... it's easy to float on gossamers when the world is safe, but when it's burning down, a guy like Biden is just the ticket.

I guess Obama doesn't hold grudges or got past the Biden comment that Obama was “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

I like the ticket. It addresses Obama's weaknesses and doesn't hurt him otherwise plus Biden plays the attack dog role well and will go after McCain.

Robert Kagan was pretty good value yesterday, helped by one of our better chairs who got him to answer a whole load of questions from the floor. Very pugnacious on Georgia, declared Islamism to be a dying force, felt world geopolitics are returning to the 19th century Big World Powers struggling over resources and spheres of influence. Did his rah-rah for mccain at the end for a european audience.

There was an interesting misstep. Discussing Nato and Russia's aggressive defence of his borders, he said that he couldn't understand why anyone would be threatened by missile shields in poland or the czech republic, 'especially when they're clearly there to defend against iran.' I couldn't understand why a guy who'd been describing a very pragmatic us vs them philosophy wouldn't just cast his argument in terms of strategic sense of keeping forces as close to the russian border as possible.

If I hadn't been a member of staff, I would have been keen to ask him more about his take on recent diplomatic overtures to India. No one else did which I thought was a missed opportunity.

Was very keen to distance himself from Bush, but no surprise there. Said that the white house didn't really like him or listen to him.

Finally, if you ever hear Kagan make reference to the Russians being as pessimistic and aggressive as Phillies fans in an article, he got that from me. So he better damn well attribute it.

Oh man. I work in DE, the people I work for hang out/live in the same neighborhood with Biden... it's going to be a long couple of months.

I hope the Biden pick pushes the McCain camp toward Palin. She's hot, she's young, she's a pro-life/pro-drill hard ass, and the selection might impress some of the swing voter disaffected Hillary types (plus a pick like that ensures that some barrier gets broken in the White House no matter who wins). I'd expect, however, that the Biden selection causes McCain to go with Romney - counter a strong well spoken pick with another strong well spoken pick. Imagine that VP debate - lots of teeth and handsomeness there, Crest should sponsor it.

FTN wrote:

Laexile wrote:Mistake. Obama's message is that we need an outsider who won't accept business as usual. How can he call McCain an insider when he chooses a guy whose been there longer than McCain? How is John McCain part of the problem and Joe Biden isn't? He can't say experience doesn't matter. Choosing Biden admits a weakness rather than shoring one up.

Of course if McCain picks Romney it's equally stupid. Romney's no maverick. If people thought McCain was rich and out of touch adding someone wealthier is only going to make him harder for people to relate to.

you'd have said it was a mistake no matter who he picked.

Then you're not reading my posts. He should have gone with a governor who has enacted change. Someone who isn't a Washington insider. A Kathleen Sebelius. Tim Kaine. Jim Webb is definitely not a Washington insider. You don't campaign that the problem is Washington insiders and then have a Washington insider as VP. I don't like it because it blunts the outsider message and it acknowledges that Obama's lack of time on the international stage is a weakness.

Some people say that Biden's international experience will reassure him, but to me it shows he isn't confident in himself internationally. Obama has to sell us that he's not too inexperienced to lead. I think the best way to do that is say that yes, he's not experienced inside the Beltway but he's experienced with the American people as a community activist. Abe Lincoln had little Washington experience. Neither did Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, or Ulysses Grant. Obama needed to enhance his messages of change and that his lack of experience inside the Beltway are his strengths. He's done the opposite.

I just got an email from the Republican Jewish Coalition highlighting Joe Biden's spotty record on Israel.

Nobody cares what you think you weren't voting for him anyway.

Most democrats love this choice as they should.

Damn, Obama's lost laexile with this move! How's he gonna win?

LAex, I understand the governor thing, but really Obama needed a solid foreign policy guy on the ticket, considering even a pragmatic lefty such as myself had some reservations about Obama's ability in that area. I think Biden is a great choice for that reason.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDVUPqoowf8[/youtube]

OMG JOHN MCCAIN MADE AN INCREDIBLY MISLEADING AD

I JUST LOST RESPECT FOR HIM AS A HUMAN BEING

OBAMA WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT HOW DARE MCCAIN TRY TO DRAG OBAMA DOWN

mpmcgraw wrote:Nobody cares what you think you weren't voting for him anyway.

Most democrats love this choice as they should.

Excellent point by point analysis. Those Democrats are wrong. Not only does he blunt the change and outsider message but the McCain campaign is already seizing on Joe Biden's repeated past assertions that Barack Obama isn't ready to lead. He reinforces their #1 criticism of Obama! Biden and McCain are close friends. While Obama criticizing McCain feels authentic if Biden questions McCain's character he'll come off as a hypocrite who is willing to throw a friend under the bus to get elected.

I was afraid of Jim Webb. Biden is the VP candidate I was hoping for. So I'll join those Democrats and reach across the aisle and love this choice. Isn't bi-partisanship great?

TenuredVulture wrote:LAex, I understand the governor thing, but really Obama needed a solid foreign policy guy on the ticket, considering even a pragmatic lefty such as myself had some reservations about Obama's ability in that area. I think Biden is a great choice for that reason.

I'm not saying he wouldn't a good addition to the Obama administration. I'm sure he would be. But reassuring you doesn't get him another vote. He needs to sell the undecideds.

Pacino, that ad says it all. You can deny it, but Joe Biden had the McCain message before McCain did.

Considering Biden is running with Obama and not McCain, the ad is pretty pointless.