Paducah Sun Newspaper Aims To Help Spoil Democratic Convention, Poo-Poo's Obama's Selection Of Biden As VP Running Mate.
CHANGE?
Veep choice sends mixed message
The Candidate of Change has made his first official appointment — placing a 35-year Washington insider on the ticket.
Barack Obama was in sixth grade in Hawaii when Joe Biden entered the United States Senate. The Delaware senator, among the chamber’s senior members, is the ultimate Beltway insider, neck deep in the machinations of power.
Biden might be known for many things — judicial activism as a former chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, foreign policy expertise as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — but he certainly doesn’t represent change. The ticket now has not one, but two, U.S. senators, hardly the right formula for “changing the culture” in Washington.
Biden is widely praised for his extensive experience, especially in foreign policy. He has few peers in that department. But saying too much on the subject puts Democrats in an uncomfortable situation. If experience is essential to the largely ceremonial position of vice president, how much more essential should it be for his boss, the one actually calling the shots? Obama had been in the Senate all of two years, one-third of his first term, when he threw his hat into the ring for president. Will he be forced to rely on his veep to walk him through the intricacies of his decisions?
The GOP, naturally, is letting Biden himself make the case about Obama’s inexperience, quoting Biden’s words from just a few months ago. Biden said of Obama, “The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.” The old senator could not have been more prescient then, regardless of what he says about Obama’s experience now.
In addition to their shared far-left views (Biden has a lifetime ACLU score of 86 percent and an American Conservative Union score of 13 percent), Obama and Biden have this in common: they have both been called walking gaffe machines. The national press raked Biden over the coals for his remark about Obama last year: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American, who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that’s a storybook, man,” a statement that earned Biden second place in Time magazine’s Top 10 Campaign Gaffes for 2007.
Can anyone imagine Biden calling it “storybook” to find a white candidate he could describe as “articulate and bright and clean”? Did he really say “clean”?
From Obama’s standpoint, the choice makes sense. He showed, for instance, that he has broad shoulders, that he’s willing to look past an off-hand comment. He showed strength by selecting a candidate whose resume overshadows his own. And he shrewdly picked a candidate who has already been through the meat grinder of a national campaign.
Obama’s youthful supporters might not remember Biden’s first bid for the presidency, back in 1987. That’s when Biden was caught plagiarizing the speeches of British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. The publicity surrounding the incident led to the revelation that Biden had plagiarized a law review article at Syracuse Law School and had exaggerated his academic record. Ironically, he attributed the “exaggerated shadow” of his youthful mistakes for his withdrawal from the race.
Republicans who are licking their chops at Biden’s selection risk underestimating this ticket. With both candidates on the Democratic ticket already so completely vetted, the GOP is left picking through an exhausted mine hoping to stumble across an undiscovered nugget. The only alternative is waiting for the next big gaffe.
That’s hardly a winning strategy.
If Obama’s liberalism — confirmed by his selection of Biden — is not sufficient to repel voters, a few unguarded comments won’t either.
Veep choice sends mixed message
The Candidate of Change has made his first official appointment — placing a 35-year Washington insider on the ticket.
Barack Obama was in sixth grade in Hawaii when Joe Biden entered the United States Senate. The Delaware senator, among the chamber’s senior members, is the ultimate Beltway insider, neck deep in the machinations of power.
Biden might be known for many things — judicial activism as a former chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, foreign policy expertise as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — but he certainly doesn’t represent change. The ticket now has not one, but two, U.S. senators, hardly the right formula for “changing the culture” in Washington.
Biden is widely praised for his extensive experience, especially in foreign policy. He has few peers in that department. But saying too much on the subject puts Democrats in an uncomfortable situation. If experience is essential to the largely ceremonial position of vice president, how much more essential should it be for his boss, the one actually calling the shots? Obama had been in the Senate all of two years, one-third of his first term, when he threw his hat into the ring for president. Will he be forced to rely on his veep to walk him through the intricacies of his decisions?
The GOP, naturally, is letting Biden himself make the case about Obama’s inexperience, quoting Biden’s words from just a few months ago. Biden said of Obama, “The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.” The old senator could not have been more prescient then, regardless of what he says about Obama’s experience now.
In addition to their shared far-left views (Biden has a lifetime ACLU score of 86 percent and an American Conservative Union score of 13 percent), Obama and Biden have this in common: they have both been called walking gaffe machines. The national press raked Biden over the coals for his remark about Obama last year: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American, who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that’s a storybook, man,” a statement that earned Biden second place in Time magazine’s Top 10 Campaign Gaffes for 2007.
Can anyone imagine Biden calling it “storybook” to find a white candidate he could describe as “articulate and bright and clean”? Did he really say “clean”?
From Obama’s standpoint, the choice makes sense. He showed, for instance, that he has broad shoulders, that he’s willing to look past an off-hand comment. He showed strength by selecting a candidate whose resume overshadows his own. And he shrewdly picked a candidate who has already been through the meat grinder of a national campaign.
Obama’s youthful supporters might not remember Biden’s first bid for the presidency, back in 1987. That’s when Biden was caught plagiarizing the speeches of British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. The publicity surrounding the incident led to the revelation that Biden had plagiarized a law review article at Syracuse Law School and had exaggerated his academic record. Ironically, he attributed the “exaggerated shadow” of his youthful mistakes for his withdrawal from the race.
Republicans who are licking their chops at Biden’s selection risk underestimating this ticket. With both candidates on the Democratic ticket already so completely vetted, the GOP is left picking through an exhausted mine hoping to stumble across an undiscovered nugget. The only alternative is waiting for the next big gaffe.
That’s hardly a winning strategy.
If Obama’s liberalism — confirmed by his selection of Biden — is not sufficient to repel voters, a few unguarded comments won’t either.
Labels: Barack Obama, Joe Biden
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 2:15 PM
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