Obama Biden For Real

[Etta Place]

Biden was the choice of most of the Democrats. There was a big backlash to Bayh because of his being on the Committee For the Liberation of Iraq. It's too bad because I think Bayh is a good guy. I guess Obama thinks he needs a bulldog and Biden fits that bill.

U.S. Secret Service on Way to Biden's House; Kaine and Bayh Told Nope on Veep
August 22, 2008 10:50 PM

The United States Secret Service has dispatched a protective detail to assume the immediate protection of Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., a source tells ABC News, indicating in all likelihood that Biden has been officially notified that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has selected him to be his running mate.

Sources also tell ABC News that two others said to be finalists for the position of Obama's running mate -- Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Virginia Gov Tim Kaine -- have been told they have not been selected to be Obama's running mate.

Kaine flew to Denver earlier today, is in Denver tonight and has no plans to leave in the next 24 hours. Bayh is at his Washington, DC, home with his family.

Biden was last seen minutes ago at his Wilmington estate where his extended brood is gathering.

The Obama campaign would not comment, but Obama mentioned Biden twice in speeches on the trail this week, both times heralding his legislative leadersip in East Asia.

At the VFW convention in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, Obama said, "we must help Georgia rebuild that which has been destroyed. That is why I’m proud to join my friend, Senator Joe Biden, in calling for an additional $1 billion in reconstruction assistance for the people of Georgia."

And in Chesapeake, Virginia, Friday night, Obama heralded Biden's efforts to provide economic assistance to Afghanistan.

"I joined with people like Joe Biden to increase a billion dollars of investment," he said.

-- ABC News' Ann Compton, Matt Jaffe, Jay Shaylor, and Jake Tapper

Political Punch

[yeahYeah]

biden will bring plenty of baggage into obama's already shaky campaign.

perfect!

[Etta Place]

Conservative columnist Brooks preferred Biden in his column today.

August 22, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Hoping It’s Biden
By DAVID BROOKS

Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate. And while I don’t know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden.

Biden’s weaknesses are on the surface. He has said a number of idiotic things over the years and, in the days following his selection, those snippets would be aired again and again.

But that won’t hurt all that much because voters are smart enough to forgive the genuine flaws of genuine people. And over the long haul, Biden provides what Obama needs:

Working-Class Roots. Biden is a lunch-bucket Democrat. His father was rich when he was young — played polo, cavorted on yachts, drove luxury cars. But through a series of bad personal and business decisions, he was broke by the time Joe Jr. came along. They lived with their in-laws in Scranton, Pa., then moved to a dingy working-class area in Wilmington, Del. At one point, the elder Biden cleaned boilers during the week and sold pennants and knickknacks at a farmer’s market on the weekends.

His son was raised with a fierce working-class pride — no one is better than anyone else. Once, when Joe Sr. was working for a car dealership, the owner threw a Christmas party for the staff. Just as the dancing was to begin, the owner scattered silver dollars on the floor and watched from above as the mechanics and salesmen scrambled about for them. Joe Sr. quit that job on the spot.

Even today, after serving for decades in the world’s most pompous workplace, Senator Biden retains an ostentatiously unpretentious manner. He campaigns with an army of Bidens who seem to emerge by the dozens from the old neighborhood in Scranton. He has disdain for privilege and for limousine liberals — the mark of an honest, working-class Democrat.

Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, have trouble connecting with working-class voters, especially Catholic ones. Biden would be the bridge.

Honesty. Biden’s most notorious feature is his mouth. But in his youth, he had a stutter. As a freshman in high school he was exempted from public speaking because of his disability, and was ridiculed by teachers and peers. His nickname was Dash, because of his inability to finish a sentence.

He developed an odd smile as a way to relax his facial muscles (it still shows up while he’s speaking today) and he’s spent his adulthood making up for any comments that may have gone unmade during his youth.

Today, Biden’s conversational style is tiresome to some, but it has one outstanding feature. He is direct. No matter who you are, he tells you exactly what he thinks, before he tells it to you a second, third and fourth time.

Presidents need someone who will be relentlessly direct. Obama, who attracts worshippers, not just staff members, needs that more than most.

Loyalty. Just after Biden was elected to the senate in 1972, his wife, Neilia, and daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash. His career has also been marked by lesser crises. His first presidential run ended in a plagiarism scandal. He nearly died of a brain aneurism.

New administrations are dominated by the young and the arrogant, and benefit from the presence of those who have been through the worst and who have a tinge of perspective. Moreover, there are moments when a president has to go into the cabinet room and announce a decision that nearly everyone else on his team disagrees with. In those moments, he needs a vice president who will provide absolute support. That sort of loyalty comes easiest to people who have been down themselves, and who had to rely on others in their own moments of need.

Experience. When Obama talks about postpartisanship, he talks about a grass-roots movement that will arise and sweep away the old ways of Washington. When John McCain talks about it, he describes a meeting of wise old heads who get together to craft compromises. Obama’s vision is more romantic, but McCain’s is more realistic.

When Biden was a young senator, he was mentored by Hubert Humphrey, Mike Mansfield and the like. He was schooled in senatorial procedure in the days when the Senate was less gridlocked. If Obama hopes to pass energy and health care legislation, he’s going to need someone with that kind of legislative knowledge who can bring the battered old senators together, as in days of yore.

There are other veep choices. Tim Kaine seems like a solid man, but selecting him would be disastrous. It would underline all the anxieties voters have about youth and inexperience. Evan Bayh has impeccably centrist credentials, but the country is not in the mood for dispassionate caution.

Biden’s the one. The only question is whether Obama was wise and self-aware enough to know that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/op...hp&oref=slogin

[redhatchbox]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

I think Bayh is a good guy.

Potential Obama VP Is Pro-War, Pro-Patriot Act Neo-Con

WAT?

[Etta Place]

Originally Posted by redhatchbox

Potential Obama VP Is Pro-War, Pro-Patriot Act Neo-Con

WAT?

Yeah, I know. He's on the wrong side of the issues, but as a former Midwestern gal, I had a soft spot for a fellow Midwestern guy who seems like a decent guy with Midwestern values. He's got the picture-perfect family. He runs triathlons. He's just Mr. Clean Cut.

[afmo]

wierd, i heard on fox news that biden and bayh both said they werent it. Either way we'll know tomorrow.

[redhatchbox]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

Yeah, I know. He's on the wrong side of the issues, but as a former Midwestern gal, I had a soft spot for a fellow Midwestern guy who seems like a decent guy with Midwestern values. He's got the picture-perfect family. He runs triathlons. He's just Mr. Clean Cut.

Sounds like the rest of the American population... Voting because of suits and haircuts, having no idea what "real issues" truly are.

Fail.

[Etta Place]

Originally Posted by redhatchbox

Sounds like the rest of the American population... Voting because of suits and haircuts, having no idea what "real issues" truly are.

Fail.

I'm still planning to vote for Ron Paul - if he's a qualified write-in candidate.

[Etta Place]

Originally Posted by redhatchbox

Sounds like the rest of the American population... Voting because of suits and haircuts, having no idea what "real issues" truly are.

Fail.

Plus, there are emotional factors that enter the picture. I know they shouldn't, but they do. Does that mean that your gut feelings about someone should be disregarded? I guess I should question my gut feelings because I thought Bush was a good guy and I thought Gore was terrible. Now, because of the issues, I feel the opposite.

[yeahYeah]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

Yeah, I know. He's on the wrong side of the issues, but as a former Midwestern gal, I had a soft spot for a fellow Midwestern guy who seems like a decent guy with Midwestern values. He's got the picture-perfect family. He runs triathlons. He's just Mr. Clean Cut.

I wish i could vote for someone because they are clean or articulate.


Obama/Biden, the style and no substance duo.