Joe "Balboa" Biden Arrives From Central Casting, Timetables Are Back on the Table, and Biden Changes the Dynamic! 72 Days to Go!

Wow. So Obama's campaign, which for months had kept the tightest lid possible on their VP search, was suddenly left with a series of leaks Saturday night that led to their announcement of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) via text message at 3 AM. I'd personally like to believe that the timing was planned, as an intentional homage to "It's 3 AM, and there's a phone ringing in the White House."


--> Biden was introduced at a sunny rally in Springfield, IL alongside Obama on Saturday afternoon. It really was a tremendously successful event, and Biden certainly impressed me with his powerful speaking style.


Of course, he did seem to feel it necessary to quote Rocky Balboa, because it would seem that Joe Biden is actually Sylvester Stallone's son. "But my mom and dad raised me to believe, it's a saying, Barack, you heard me say before, my dad repeated it and repeated it. Said "Champ, it's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how quickly you get up. It’s how quickly you get up."

As anyone who saw Rocky Balboa, this is indeed roughly the exact advice that Rocky gives his pissant of a son when Peter Petrelli - ahem, Rocky Jr. whines about his dad's legacy. Thankfully, Biden has shown throughout his life that he's been willing to take the hits, and keep moving forward.

Feel free to watch it on the official network of Barack Obama: at this link.


The selection of Biden certainly reframes the race, if not giving it a complete overhaul. Primarily, it demonstrates that Obama was more concerned about shoring up his foreign policy credentials (and there's no one better on the Democratic side to pick for that, besides maybe Wesley Clark) than he was about emphasizing his message of change. My problem with the Biden selection (before it happened, that is) was that Biden's lengthy resume draws attention to Obama's lack of one. Ultimately, while Biden might reassure some voters that Obama's foreign policy decisions will be in good hands, voters decide to cast their ballots for the top of the ticket. By choosing Biden, Obama allows Team McCain to paint him as a Democratic Bush - no knowledge of foreign policy and thus unprepared to be President, but has a mentor/elder statesman as VP to basically run the show in his place.


In fact, McCain and Biden are good friends. McCain doesn't actually have to attack Biden at all (and would indeed be better served not doing so). Instead, he can run ads praising Biden's 30+ year record of service, and then declare, "Joe Biden is ready to be President. But is Barack Obama?"

The GOP has already jumped on Obama's misstep as he introduced Biden to the crowd, when he accidentally called him "the next president - the next vice president of the United States," as a Freudian slip. Biden's only mistake was much more amusing, as he accidentally referred to his partner as "Barack America."

More importantly, the GOP countered the Biden announcement with an immediate attack ad in which they use Biden against Obama, playing clips of him questioning Obama's readiness and praising McCain.


--> There's no question, this race has taken an ugly turn in the past 2 weeks, and it seems to only be getting worse. Obama advisor Robert Gibbs finally opened up one of the biggest cans of worms today, when he mused that McCain's housing gaffe was "because he either forgot how many he has, misplaced the keys to those houses, or he just wasn't being truthful with those reporters." Finally, the Obama campaign is gonna start hitting McCain on the age issue. In fact, I happen to have a copy of the campaign's most recent press release/attack on McCain:


Jonathan Martin of Politico actually points out that McCain, when asked about the attacks by Obama/Biden that he's out of touch by Katie Couric, once again reaches into his deck of cards and pulls out the joker: “I spent some years without a kitchen table, without a chair, and I know what it's like to be blessed by the opportunities of this great nation.” Be prepared to hear a lot about this one, folks. McCain's experience as a POW may be his one qualification to be President.


--> Meanwhile, the ugly Ghost of Primaries Past rears its head once more. Because of the ancient, never-broken rule that the runner up in an election automatically becomes the Vice-President, apparently people feel that Hillary had earned the right to be Obama's running mate. Despite the fact that Biden is literally 50,000 times more experienced and qualified than Hillary, many of her angry, internet-connected supporters are declaring that they will vote for McCain in November because Joe Biden does not have ovaries. This may seem like I'm belittling their respect for Hillary, but ultimately it's clear that these PUMAs have no interest in Hillary's policies - if they did, they would vote for Obama without hesitation since he agrees with her on basically everything. The only reason that they would vote for McCain out of spite, violating everything that Hillary campaigned on, is that they're more interested in her identity than anything she stands for. If only they realized that if they cost Obama the nomination, there's no chance in hell that the Democratic Party will let them pick Hillary in 4 years - she and her crazy wing of the party will be exiled. Do all these angry Hillary supporters honestly believe that in 4 years, when they can't get an abortion in some states, can't check out a library book without the federal government knowing, and thousands more troops have died in Iraq, that we Obama supporters will be somehow taught a lesson?


You don't pick a Vice-President based on political expediency. If Obama's goal with his running mate choice was to get elected, he would have taken Hillary as a peace offering to her 18,000,000 cracks and as an attempt to woo their votes. But the Office of the Vice-President is more important than that, and Obama is smart enough to realize that and respect that. He picked someone who he could work with, someone who could advise him on an area that he admittedly has less than a seasoned grasp of, and someone who could feasibly be President were something to happen to him. Hillary only qualifies for the 3rd one.


That, of course, doesn't stop John McCain's campaign from exploiting Hillary's legacy as a liberal crusader and using primary clips to try to convince gullible undecideds that she actually likes McCain more. Apparently McCain's strategy is that hell hath no fury like a candidate scorned. In a statement, Hillary's spokeswoman reminds everyone that Obama and Hillary agree on the issues while McCain is completely wrong for the future of this country.


--> By the way, the news networks basically ignored what was easily the most important story of this week: the US actually agreed to a timetable to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. The issue of timetables versus time horizons versus contingent versus checkpoints has been one of the major policy divisions of Washington over the last two years. Finally there's been some sort of conclusion reached, and no one bothers to mention it. Instead, CNN devotes its time to live, continuous coverage of Joe Biden's garage door. At least someone came out of that experience ahead.

That's all for me tonight. Enjoy your days, and hopefully enjoy the DNC. I'll be bringing you coverage of the event when I can, hopefully each of the four nights, but it depends on what I can access on my computer. At some point in the coming few weeks, I'd love to ask some questions of our on-site friends of EDC, Harrison and Alex, who will both be in Denver this week. If either of them would be interested in detailing some of their experiences (I know Alex will already be blogging), and being utilized as EDC's first in-the-field correspondent, I hope they comment on this post or email me/facebook me.

In the meantime, wish them good luck. Don't get too arrested, you guys.