Obama picks Biden for VP slot

[Kodiak]

from CNN

link here

Sen. Barack Obama has picked Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate.

The longtime Democratic senator was long considered a likely choice for vice president, but the buzz surrounding him intensified after he returned earlier this week from a two-day trip to the Republic of Georgia after Russian troops invaded.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, brings years of experience that could help counter GOP arguments that an Obama administration would be inexperienced on foreign policy.

Biden abandoned his own White House run after a poor showing in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses. He also ran for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out after charges of plagiarism in a stump speech.

The 65-year-old was first elected to the Senate in 1972. Shortly afterwards, his first wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He considered resigning, but decided to continue with his political career.

Biden is currently serving out his sixth term, making him Delaware's longest-serving senator.

Biden is married and has three children. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and got a law degree from Syracuse.

In 1988, Biden suffered an aneurysm and nearly died but has recovered fully.

One of Biden's grandfathers was a Pennsylvania state senator, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

Biden will make his first big speech as the VP candidate on Wednesday, August 27 -- the third night of the Democratic convention.

so much for any Obama/Clinton ticket. Let's see how this plays out.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The idiot, if he'd chosen Kaine we could basically forgo the election.

[Pelranius]

How terribly boring. Though in all honesty, I sort of stopped paying attention to the Veep business after Webb said he wasn't interested.

[Adrian Laguna]

How terribly boring. Though in all honesty, I sort of stopped paying attention to the Veep business after Webb said he wasn't interested.

That is exactly how I feel on the matter.

[Adrian Laguna]

The idiot, if he'd chosen Kaine we could basically forgo the election.

Governor of Virginia... yeah, that would have been a better choice, force McCain to fight on GOP home territory. I'm not surprised Obama didn't do that, though. His rhetoric notwithstanding, Obama is a really cautious politician.

[Guardsman Bass]

Well, he picked someone who supposedly "balances him out". Biden has plenty of foreign policy experience plus experience in Washington, period.

This should be interesting. Kaine probably would have also been a good choice, but he has the same weakness Obama has - little experience in the international realm. Still, that would have helped in Virginia . . .

[CaptainChewbacca]

Well, Obama obviously admires Biden, and Biden thinks Obama is a good, clean Black...

Should be fun.

[Adrian Laguna]

This should be interesting. Kaine probably would have also been a good choice, but he has the same weakness Obama has - little experience in the international realm. Still, that would have helped in Virginia . . .

Thing is, by shoring-up weaknesses you also bring attention to them. Notice that Clinton basically picked a clone of himself as his running mate, and it worked pretty well. Furthermore, going on the offensive in formerly GOP strongholds (ie, Virginia) is a better strategy than just shoring-up your defences.

[Stormbringer]

Thing is, by shoring-up weaknesses you also bring attention to them. Notice that Clinton basically picked a clone of himself as his running mate, and it worked pretty well. Furthermore, going on the offensive in formerly GOP strongholds (ie, Virginia) is a better strategy than just shoring-up your defences.

Except Obama could hardly bring more attention to it than McCain already has. One area McCain has consistently done fairly well on has been foreign policy, particularly as relates to the military. It's going to be and already has been a pretty significant issue whoever Obama picked. And barring some one like Jim Webb (who was some one I would have liked to see in the position), Biden is a solid pick to help guide him.

As for going on the offensive, he can still do that and these days the draw of a picking regionally doesn't work too well. It failed last time around as the Presidential candidate is still going to be front and center.

[SirNitram]

Part of me hopes this isn't so for two reasons.

1) Finally, the gasbag political media class had nothing but bluster, no gloating about 'Inside sources' handing them the choice first. They were in their place, at least temporarily, and humbling those blowhards is always nice.

2) I want to see the GOP spend all night coming up with smears against Biden, only to find the text message next morning names someone else, and they've all been had by a massive head-fake.

[Gerald Tarrant]

This was supposed to be announced via text or email or website sometime tomorrow wasn't it? Was this a leak?

[Gerald Tarrant]

Nevermind, I followed the link, the story is constantly undergoing updates.

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama has selected Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, according to his official Web site and a text message the campaign sent to supporters early Saturday.

"Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee," the text message, sent at about 3 a.m. ET, said....<snip>

Curious that they chose 3 am for the announcement though. Maybe they wanted to make the last second editing deadlines for the NYTimes and various other major papers.

[LMSx]

Nevermind, I followed the link, the story is constantly undergoing updates.

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama has selected Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, according to his official Web site and a text message the campaign sent to supporters early Saturday.

"Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee," the text message, sent at about 3 a.m. ET, said....<snip>

Curious that they chose 3 am for the announcement though. Maybe they wanted to make the last second editing deadlines for the NYTimes and various other major papers.

Interesting- they get the last second "OBAMA PICKS BIDEN" headline with a paragraph blurb on the Saturday edition, then on Sunday readers get the headline again, this time with coverage of the Springfield event. At least I hope that was the strategery behind this.

[Metatwaddle]

Boring? Really? I don't agree at all. Biden's got the biggest mouth of all the senators. In the Democratic primary he said there were three things in every sentence that comes out of Rudy Giuliani's mouth: a noun, a verb and 9/11. He also called President Bush's "appeasement" speech to the Knesset "bullshit".

The flipside of this is that sometimes he says some stupid shit. Anyone want to take bets on how long it'll take him to have some complete gaffe? I'm betting he'll say something stupid on one of the Sunday talk shows.

I'm absolutely ecstatic, but I'm also pretty partisan. Biden graduated from my school and is currently the best-known person from my state, period. But I'd like him no matter where he was from.

To the Kaine fans: It was an interesting idea, but Kaine isn't actually that popular in Virginia, so I don't think he'd help Obama's chances. Jim Webb would have been a good choice, but he didn't want the job.

I admit that at first I was sure that Biden wouldn't be the VP pick because of his unfortunate habit of shooting his mouth off, but I'm happy to be wrong today.

[Jadeite]

Governor of Virginia... yeah, that would have been a better choice, force McCain to fight on GOP home territory. I'm not surprised Obama didn't do that, though. His rhetoric notwithstanding, Obama is a really cautious politician.

Virginia has a really good chance of going blue anyway, and Kaine is also quite young and "inexperienced". If it hadn't been Biden, Bayh would have been better than Kaine in terms of resume and also representing a swing state this election.

[RedImperator]

Obama can carry Virginia without Tim Kaine, Kaine's replacement would have been a Republican, he doesn't shore up any of Obama's weaknesses, he actually reinforces several, he's not as good an attack dog as Biden, and I don't think he automatically carries Virginia anyway. It's been a long time since a VP candidate has actually carried a state or a region, and I think Obama (and McCain, for that matter) are better served looking for a running mate that brings other qualities to the ticket.

Joe Biden is a good pick. He shores up an electoral weakness. He's an independent thinker who'll tell Obama "no" in private, but a loyal Democrat who won't try to undercut him in public (*cough*Hillary*cough*). His successor will be a Democrat (there's a gubernatorial election in Delaware this year, but the actual election is the Democratic primary on 9 September; the Republican Party is in complete shambles in Delaware). He's a nasty attack dog who can credibly (and maybe literally) call "bullshit" on anything that comes out of McCain's mouth. He's going to sink his teeth into McCain's leg and stay there until 4 November, and I pity whichever palooka is going against him in the VP debate (Tim Pawlenty? Mittens? Please.) And he's a credible successor if something should happen to Obama.

[Ariphaos]

I sure as hell hope McCain picks Romney, that will be a fun match.

Biden's numbers beat Kaine's into the ground amongst undecideds, for certain.

[Battlehymn Republic]

Biden was the only damn candidate who had a realistic idea on Iraq.

BIDEN: Number one, there is not a single military man in this audience who will tell this senator he can get those troops out in six months if the order goes today.

Let's start telling the truth. Number one, you take all the troops out. You better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die, number one.

So we can't leave them there. And it's going to take a minimum 5,000 troops to 10,000 just to protect our civilians. So while you're taking them out, Governor, take everybody out. That may be necessary.

Number three, the idea that we all voted -- except for me -- for that appropriation. That man's son is dead. For all I know, it was an IED. Seventy percent of all the deaths occurred have been those roadside bombs. We have money in that bill to begin to build and send immediately mine-resistant vehicles that increase by 80 percent the likelihood none of your cadets will die, General. And they all voted against it.

How in good conscience can you vote not to send those vehicles over there as long as there's one single, solitary troop there?

COOPER: Senator Biden, how do we pull out now? That was the question.

BIDEN: Anderson, you've been there. You know we can't just pull out now. Let's get something straight. It's time to start to tell the truth. The truth of the matter is: If we started today, it would take one year, one year to get 160,000 troops physically out of Iraq, logistically.

That's number one.

Number two, you cannot pull out of Iraq without the follow-on that's been projected here, unless you have a political solution. I'm the only one that's offered a political solution.

And it literally means separate the parties; give them jurisdiction in their own areas; have a decentralized government, a federal system. No central government will work.

And, thirdly, the fact of the matter is, the very thing everybody's quoting is the very legislation I wrote in January. It said: Begin to draw down combat troops now; get the majority of the combat troops out by March of '08.

There's not one person in here that can say we're going to eliminate all troops...

COOPER: OK, time.

BIDEN: ... unless you're going to eliminate every physical person who's an American in Iraq.

COOPER: Time.

BIDEN: Tell the truth for a change.

[Invictus ChiKen]

I sure as hell hope McCain picks Romney, that will be a fun match.

Biden's numbers beat Kaine's into the ground amongst undecideds, for certain.

Oh hell yes! I know it is so wrong but I am hearing the old Acolytes entrance theme playing in my head at the idea of Biden vs. Romney

[Surlethe]

This was supposed to be announced via text or email or website sometime tomorrow wasn't it? Was this a leak?

I got the text at about 3:30 this morning. It's official.

[Mr. T]

I think he'll make a good Veep candidate. The man is the definition of attack dog and that's really the most important thing when it comes to the VP candidate. It's why Edwards was such a poor choice last time around. Biden is guaranteed to actually attack the other party for a change.

[His Divine Shadow]

I was sorta hoping for Bill Richardson myself.

[CmdrWilkens]

The idiot, if he'd chosen Kaine we could basically forgo the election.

Are you kidding? Iknow folks are obsessed (as I once was) with the idea of geographic bumps from VP candidates but Kaine almost has a net negative in his home state. His disapproval/approval rating has flirted with being co-equal for most of the last year since the disaster and reverses over transportation funding and the apparent inability of the VA government to present a decent case for the Dulles/Tyson's subway corridor. SImply pu Kaine has more to gain (as do Democrats in Virginia) from Obama campaining with Kaine but not o the same ticket.

Right now Virginia will be competitive without Kaine on the ticket (as he is continuing to campaign for Obama anyway so his wight is still behind Obama) and honestly I don't think we shoudl want to forgo the elction because there is so much room to change the game in many states that were once considered blood red.

Now Biden as a choice I get, though I've already given enough pointing out that covering a "weakness" does no such thing, but from a purely tactical standpoint it does make sense. Sebelius is a great asset in typical midwestern states, Kaine being pulled on to the ticket may have lost the VA governor's mansion, for the same reason McCaskill was never a likely shot, Clinton was a no-go for obvious reasons, Edwards became that way within the last month even without his open statement of not wanting the job, Richardson is the one I see no tactical downside in aside from Biden. With Bide I think it rather apparent that the Dems won't lose a Senate seat and in an election where 5-6 pickups are likely and another 2-3 are not impossible every seat counts because the smaller the gap between the number of Democrats and the magic 60 number the better an Obama administration will be able to run. Biden's seat is about as safely Democrat as anyone's short of Kennedy and Kerry's.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I was sorta hoping for Bill Richardson myself.

I was hoping for Richardson too. However, Biden's actually a logical choice for Obama, as he makes up for Obama's percieved weaknesses:

Obama's a young black man from a liberal stronghold who's barely been in the Senate for one term. Biden's an old white guy who's been in the Senate since the Nixon administration who comes from a state predominantly filled with white people.

Obama may or may not be a closet atheist who attends the Church of God Damn Whitey. Biden is a God-fearing Catholic . . . a religious affiliation people have actually voted into the office of POTUS, and one which may help Obama win over the predominantly Catholic Hispanic vote.

Obama is widely known for having broadened his mental horizons via mind-altering pharmaceuticals in college. Biden created the Drug Czar, and his name is prominently tied to anti-drug legislation, though his focus is on rehabilitation, rather than punishment.

Obama is seen as being weak on foreign policy. Biden chairs the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations.

However, Biden isn't likely to get anyone to vote for Obama who wasn't inclined to vote for him in the first place. That's okay, as John the Senile will be busy sacrificing any capability for original thought at the Altar of Saint Ronald.

[Anguirus]

How terribly boring. Though in all honesty, I sort of stopped paying attention to the Veep business after Webb said he wasn't interested.

Fuck that Confederate fetishist.

I'm not a Biden expert but he seems like a good choice. Almost Cheney-like, actually...he doesn't seem the type to have his own burning presidential ambition, but will concentrate on helping Obama. (I could be wrong, of course.)