Scott Holleran © 2008
Delaware Senator Joe Biden is presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s designated vice-presidential nominee and I think he’s a solid choice for Obama. The 65-year old liberal meets key criteria for aiding an Obama victory over conservative Christian Republican John McCain, which would be an electoral rejection of religionist domination of the GOP.
Widely viewed as independent, Sen. Biden, who, like Obama, never moved to the nation’s capital, lays claim to Obama’s anti-Washington campaign theme. Like Obama, the single dad’s personal biography is possible only in America. Besides appealing to labor and blue collar Catholic types that eluded Obama in his race against Clinton, his credentials—except for a plagiarized speech decades ago—are good.
Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the contentious, and, in retrospect, pivotal, Supreme Court nomination hearings for conservative Justice Clarence Thomas and the rejected conservative Judge Robert Bork. My recollection of those hearings is that Biden was a consistent voice of reason, with a tendency to speechify, who, at least to some extent, used individual rights as the standard for measuring a nominee’s qualifications. Biden, who ran for president against Obama earlier in this campaign, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Scott Holleran © 2008
Obama’s Springfield, Illinois, announcement was patriotic, evoking our 16th president, Honest Abe Lincoln, and decorated by a huge American flag. Obama entered to an idealistic U2 song, introducing Biden as an equal valued for his independence—explicitly rejecting the notion of a “yes man”—and enthusiasm for Obama’s choice drowns the clatter of bitter Hillary feminists carping about catharsis and trying to derail Obama’s election.
Biden’s words were sharp, naming honesty as a top Obama administration virtue and praising the liberal Obama for his judgment, intelligence and courage and assuring the nation that Obama has both a strong mind and “steel in his spine.” His best moment—and hinting at the case for Obama’s candidacy—is Biden’s description of the race as a contest between “a wise leader” and “a good soldier”.
This is a reference to the fact that McCain will continue, even expand, the Bush administration’s deployment of the United States military in untenable situations (I think McCain will also resurrect the draft) while Obama—whose candidacy is founded on the idea that the selfless Iraq engagement must end—will stop it.
Obama and Biden, joined by their wives, exited the Springfield stage to Bruce Springsteen’s stirring and triumphant song about the nation’s recovery following the worst attack in American history (“The Rising”). The event was a pure political production, though it represents the clear, unavoidable choice facing each American voter in this presidential election: reject the status quo or bow to more of the same.
