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It’s Biden time
Ever since Barack Obama announced Saturday that he had selected Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) as his running mate, political analysts have stayed busy weighing in with their take on the highly anticipated decision:
- “The candidate of change went with the status quo.”
- “Choice of Biden fits the reality if not the starry-eyed message.”
- “In Biden, Obama strikes a balance.”
WORLD’s Jamie Dean also offers her analysis, noting that Democrats have plenty of reasons to welcome—and worry about—Biden as the vice presidential pick.
What’s your take on an Obama-Biden ticket?
Topic: Campaign 2008, WorldMagBlog
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back to top47 Comments to “It’s Biden time”
I don’t have a problem with Biden. I don’t agree with him on the issues, but he’s not a bad person. I actually feel better that there would be someone with a real knowledge of how things work sitting next to Obama to tell him what to do. I did see on a thread on the old blog where Anlir said Biden is smart, however, and I would have to disagree. He certainly has experience, he certainly can do the job, but a 2.72 grade point average doesn’t say he’s “smart.”
Just sayin’.
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Oh, and this from last Friday:
“See you guys Monday — we’ll know BO’s VP by then, but this will come back. I want to know the justification for BO having the powers of God, or at least the lefty view of that.”
Our liberal/leftist friends kept not answering that question. Thank you in advance.
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I can see the bumper stickers now… Vote for “BOB”!
The jingle – Everybody has an uncle “BOB”! Just pull the lever for your dear ol’ uncle “BOB”!! Wand change? Change starts with “B” and ends with a “B”!! Such a cute little palindrome.
Do you think there will be enough room on the platform for the both of them?
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but a 2.72 grade point average doesn’t say he’s “smart.”
Comparing academic achievements is not a good idea for McCain — he ranks pretty low in his Academy graduating class.
. I want to know the justification for BO having the powers of God,
Since the Bush presidency saw the (re)establishment of executive supremacy over the other branches of gov’t, Republicans are beginning to worry about the monster they created. Bush fashioned himself as the Decider. From the campaign I viewed so far, I think Obama is more consensus than the Decider.
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I didn’t compare ANYTHING, HRW. YOU did. I was referring to Anlir’s post.
Biden is as liberal as Obama, so when they say they want to reach across the aisle, don’t believe them
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And I don’t think McCain is a lawyer. That was Biden’s GPA in law school. He was, as I recall 75th out of a class of 85.
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Not that that matters. I know what he went through to get that 2.72. He also admitted to plagiarism during his first year. That could matter — but he admitted to it, and it was a long time ago, and there are other things about him that are positive. His leftist views are not one of those things. But he’s a nice guy.
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Sorry for the excessive posting — I’m making dinner, and I don’t want anything to burn.
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Ho-hum. What does Biden add to Obama? The appearance of experience. If he were chosen for his vote getting ability, then someone miscounted. Did he ever get over 5% in the primaries?
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Oops! Sorry. The first syllable in my post might be construed by some as racist. Can it be changed?
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One thing nice about Biden is that he’s been a man of (reasonable) integrity. Though in the Senate for 30+ years, he is the least-rich of the bunch. And he’s made it a practice to commute, rather than live in D.C. Oh, and his son is off to Iraq.
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Having very little exposure to Biden until I watched one primary debate I was very impressed with what I saw. He is to the left of Clinton (not difficult), has a working class attitude, and has a positive view of gov’t. Good pick.
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And his son was paid by MBNA when Biden was voting on legislation they wanted passed. Didn’t know that.
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As a CSPAN watcher, I’ve had plenty of exposure to Biden. As I said late last week, he’s smart as a whip. They guy knows foreign policy.
I have particularly liked his thinking on Iraq. He thinks the country should be divied up into 3 federations (Sunni, Shia, and Kurd). Iraq was a country cobbled together like Yugoslavia.
I’m pretty satisfied with the choice of Biden. His one line “zinger” about McCain having to decide which of his seven kitchen tables he gonna sit at to pay his bills was great. We need a Democrat who will dish it out as good at the Republicans are.
He can be too long winded sometimes and come across as a blow-hard. But I think he’s a pretty nice guy over-all. And like I said, he’s smart.
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But what did Joe Biden say about Obama?
“I would be honored to run with or against John McCain”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDVUPqoowf8
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Obama was mindful of the proverb, “My son despise not the chastening of the LORD neither be weary of his correction.” Obama didn’t like hearing he wasn’t ready, but he’s man enough to accept reproof.
Sean Wilentz today acknowledges that Biden isn’t a pure liberal, but is glad that Biden will pull Obama back to the party’s progressive tradition of FDR, HT, JFK, and WJC, and away from the goofy idealism of Jimmy Carter, where he seemed to be disastrously headed.
I agree with Wilentz. The party’s task is to update yesterday’s promise that, without overreaching, government has an important role to play in expanding the opportunities and well-being of ordinary Americans. Obama can’t transcend political divisions, he must use politics to offer voters a transaction, aimed not at changing Washington but at producing specific legislative results. Biden is that kind of traditional Democrat.
Wilentz faults public intelllectuals for not hauling Obama into the mainstream of transactional politics.
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I doubt the Sunnis would agree. They live in the part of Iraq without the oil, and as I recall, they rioted at the thought of Biden’s plan.
He was a C student in law school. That ain’t smart. Nice guy, though.
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Scroopy writes: “…aimed not at changing Washington but at producing specific legislative results…
So, they’re NOT interested in change. Just as I suspected…..
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NJLAWYER — you can’t really believe Biden voted for the awful bankruptcy bill because he needed campaign contributions or his son needed a job. The young man is being deployed to Iraq! Biden voted for that crap because he’s more conservative than he ought to be.
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NJLAWYER — of course he really wanted to bring change. His heart was set on Gov. Kaine and an agenda of historic political reform. The voters don’t want change, is the problem, they want help. That being said, you will hear Obama-Biden defining “change” as recalibrating public policy back to the “center” from where 40 years of Republican White Houses have moved the country.
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You get around that by an oil sharing agreement among the 3 federations.
As any reasonable person knows, grades are not necessarily a sign of intelligence or the lack thereof. It’s only one measuring stick.
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So, he’s flip-flopping…
For Anlir:
Splitting up Iraq was dismissed a looonnnnggg time ago by the Iraqis. The idea was one of the reasons the Sunnis went nuts in Baghdad.
The CNN poll makes it appear that the reason McCain is doing better is because he is attracting more supporters of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Obama’s not picking her as his vice presidential candidate is likely turning off former Clinton backers further. The survey finds 66 percent of Clinton supporters who are registered Democrats support Obama, but the number is down from the 75 percent of Clinton backers who supported him at the end of June. Full story at LifeNews.com.
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That last paragraph should be in quotes.
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Or, maybe it’s not flip-flopping. Maybe it’s lying.
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Biden, like any politician who’s been in office awhile, is gonna have some controversial, troubling votes. Certainly his close ties to MBNA and his vote in favor of bankruptcy reform are negative marks against him. Did his kid probably get a cushy job due to who his dad is? Yup. Has he done some stuff that’s crooked and shady over the years? No doubt. Name a politician who hasn’t.
What one has to do is look at the over-all measure of the person. He’s clearly been on the right side of things like civil rights and women’s rights. By all accounts, he’s done a good job being a father and a husband. His reputation is that of a straight-shooter, though sometimes lacking in tact.
Look, we all know the Republicans are going to go after Biden personally and try to take him down. It’s the politics of personal destruction. Whether it works or not, it’s a sorry thing.
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re-calibrating.
McCain’s the flip-flopper – liar.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Joe Biden highlight reel. Courtesy of the sayanythingblog. My favorite is the second one.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/joe_bidens_highlight_reel/
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I don’t disagree with bankruptcy reform. It needed to be done. Now we need banking reform and not just in the lending arena.
What amazes me and what I am getting at is how all the excuses are coming out for Biden, but GWB and his dad were skewered. Anlir gives us the usual double standard — which is why I dismiss his posts in their entirety.
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Certainly one can make a “highlight” reel of any person’s life. I dare say if one were made of mine, it would full of contradiction, hypocrisy, controversy, stupidity (see Worldmag), and failure. But it would not be a fair measurement of my life or who I am.
This demand for a candidate who is without fault, and the zealous attempts at playing “gotcha” in order to personally destroy people who are running for office does not bode well for the future of American democracy.
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Blind Republican loyalty and conservative Christian hypocrisy is why I dismiss NJLawyer’s posts in their entirety.
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The National Journal pegged Biden as the third most liberal Senator in 2007. Obama ranked first. Since we are basically a center-right country, I doubt whether Obama helped himself with this choice.
Biden is well known for shooting his mouth off imprudently. Since presidential campaigns are heated, we have a good chance of being entertained by some Biden fire works that will hurt Obama.
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Speaking of blind loyalty, Ted Kennedy is on live right now. His video intro was a regular love fest. CSPANdotorg has it all live at their website on streaming. It’s cool to just have it on sound in the background, and pop over when it sounds good.
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NJLawyer, in post #2 you bring up a Friday thread about political messianism. I have no justification for any political candidate claiming the powers of God, but I want to reiterate my point (cut off by the server switch) that George W. Bush did just that and the evangelical right worshiped him for it.
So while I have no answer to your challenge in #2, I would like to answer these challenges:
Peter Leavitt:
Drill:
So, yeah, this is a thread hijack thinly veiled as a response to NJL’s post #2. Biden gets mentioned though.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you George W. Bush, the right’s political messiah:
So I’d like to hear from NJL, Drill, and Peter, how George Bush seeing himself as an instrument of God on a divine mission to rid the world of evil by invading foreign nations on only the hunches of his instinct is any less messianic than Obama’s calls for hope and change.
Then I’d like to hear Drill call President Bush a “complete loon and a danger to society” like he promised.
Man, I’d really like to hear that.
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No doubt there will be a huge roar and a raucus celebration of joy across conservative Christianity when Senator Kennedy passes away. Hopefully that day will be later than sooner.
But tonight, the decent people, the good people, the humane people of America are honoring him for his lifetime of service to this country.
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Anlir @ #34 wrote: No doubt there will be a huge roar and a raucus celebration of joy across conservative Christianity when Senator Kennedy passes away.
You have just shown what a spineless horrible person you are, using Senator Kennedy’s illness to rag on Christianity! You ought to be ashamed of yourself. This thread is not about Ted or a certain belief system. It’s about time you realize that this belief system you truly hate is the reason why America is so great. Yes, we conservatives do not agree on any issue with the Liberal Lion but we certainly have enough ammo against Joe “The Plaigarist” Biden that will keep us busy til November 4th. Try to stick with the issue at hand, Anlir.
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It was one of your fellow conservative Christians in #32 that drug Ted Kennedy into the conversation. We already saw this kind of rejoicing on here when George Carlin died.
but we certainly have enough ammo against Joe “The Plaigarist” Biden that will keep us busy til November 4th.
No doubt, you do. But that’s the whole problem with Republicans and conservative Christians – they engage in the politics of personal destruction instead of doing what’s right for the good of the country.
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Seeing that Theophilus wants to play with plagiarism ammo, he should understand that taking your words from Wikipedia last week to construct your response to the conflict between Russia and Georgia is more explosive than acknowledging your borrowing from a great British politician in some, but not all, of your indebted speeches two decades ago.
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I am sure Ted Kennedy will be treated with as more dignity and respect by our side than Tony Snow and Jerry Falwell were by yours.
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Scroopy, thou makest no sense. Enough of you.
Anlir, the real AJ only pointed out that Senator Kennedy was speaking at the podium, not relishing in his illness to smear christians. Oh, and the difference between George Carlin and Ted Kennedy is: A) Senator Kennedy is still with us. Thank God. and B) Carlin was demonstrably anti-God, anti-christian, and had life-long disdain for anything having to do with theological excellance.
I am in total agreement with KBells assessment of the after life comments made by pundits all across this nation concerning Falwell (whom I agreed with most of the time) and Tony Snow, one of this nations eloquent, erudite, and morally excellant gentlemen of our time.
When it is Ted’s time to check into Casa Eternity, you see what the worldwide press will say about him. Will it be a puff piece, or will people know both the pros and cons of a man, who for 35 years in the Senate, helped destroy the American way of life that our ForeFathers built?
Hmmmm, kinda reminds me of the current Vice Presidential Dummycrat!
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#39 – Theophilus you are advancing a solution or an answer before the question is even posed. Although you did prove kbells wrong.
#35 plagiarism is an issue most Democrats would love to discuss. Not only in discussing foreign policy response but in a personal faith story lifted from Solzhenitsyn.
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I saw no rejoicing on here over the demise of Tony Snow or Falwell like there was over Carlin. But even if there was, it doesn’t make it right. It’s amazing to me that conservative Christians justify doing wrong by pointing out that other people do it. I don’t think that excuse is going to wash with your God.
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Anlir writes: “I saw no rejoicing on here over the demise of Tony Snow or Falwell like there was over Carlin.”
I remember the Jerry Falwell thread very well and it was appalling. As usual, Anlir is using his selective memory cells. I have no doubt that when his time comes, Kennedy will be treated far more fairly and honestly than Jerry Falwell ever was.
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Well, perhaps we all have a “selective” memory.
I still don’t see how it justifies anything.
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You wouldn’t, would you, Anlir? I have never met anyone who can deny, deny, deny and then turn around and say it again with a straight face.
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McCain’s “We’re all Georgians Now” speech plagiarized Wikipedia — two weeks ago. McCain hasn’t apologized.
Biden’s troubles with plagiarism were twenty years ago. He apologized. Further, at least he had enough class to copy something worth the trouble.
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Look in the mirror.
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Decent guys don’t necessarily make good veeps or presidents. Look at George W. Bush or Jimmy Carter.
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