Biden His Time
While this rant is long overdue, it will be paired with another one coming soon, so call this the first part of a double feature. After months of speculation, false leads, denials and straight out boredom of pundits, Obama announced Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden, the opposite of "new politics" that Obama has long lauded in this campaign. Biden is possibly the opposite of all this. A man who has been in the senate for 36 years, Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, former chair of the Judiciary Committee and generally one of the most powerful men in the country. He's been an elected official since Nixon's first term and has chaired committees for the past 20 years when the Democrats have held the Senate. He voted for use of force in Iraq, suggested dividing Iraq into three autonomous sections, and said some borderline inappropriate comments about Obama when Biden first announced he was running for President. Oh, yeah, he lost a run for the presidency, bowing out after a disappointing show in the Iowa caucuses. He is, in short, standard bearer of the Democratic party in the Senate and has been for a long time. And yet, Obama picked him to be his running mate to retake the White House for the Democrats, and there might not have been a better choice out there for Obama.
Joe Biden is quite both the brave and boring choice for Obama. He's classic Washington long term politico, but he's also known to have an independent streak. A loyal party Democrat for a long time, but who has made considerable verbal gaffes. A man who called Slobodan Milosevic a war criminal to his face and once called out a Secretary of State for supporting South Africa while they had apartheid. He's a moderate, but a longstanding liberal who wrote Violence Against Women Act. He's been a member of Congress for 36 years since he was 30 years old, but still lives in Delaware and takes the Amtrak train to and from work almost every day. He is, inherently, a man of himself, and thus full of contradictions. Not quite the maverick that McCain used to be, neither is he the Democrat Republicans slap onto campaign material to get donations just by his face. He's a machine man of the Senate, in that nothing can get done without him, but he's not the Ted Kennedy that can snap his fingers and make new policy happen. However, he is a man that Republicans don't like much and should be afraid of.
When Republicans complained about family values, they could never touch Joe Biden. He was elected to the Senate at 29 (technically, making him too young to serve, as minimum age is 30). His wife and three children were down in DC checking out houses when they were in a terrible care accident. His wife and daughter were killed and his two sons were hospitalized with sever injuries. Biden thought about giving up his seat saying "Delaware can get another Senator, my boys need a father". He was convinced by other Democrats to keep his seat, but wanting his boys to experience as little trauma as possible, so he kept his house in Delaware and his boys stayed in school and grew up in Delaware. He took an Amtrak train every day instead of shortening his commute and moving to DC. He missed out on a lot of the after hours DC social life that goes in Bethesda, Georgetown, Reston and all places around, he was taking care of his boys. That, ladies and gentlemen, is real family values. Hating your children or siblings is not an example of family values. Taking money from reverends and megachurches then hitting the DC nightlife is not an example of family values. So, he's a little hard to paste with the "Democrats hate families" slogan that was popular for so long. So, he's an actual family values Democrat, who is known as both a loyal party man, but not a blind follower. A loudmouth who speaks his mind, tells truth to power and is basically an overgrown street guy.
A great counterpoint to Obama. Obama, a true child of streets, has a nasty tendency to come off as not a street guy. The downside of years of polish, Ivy League education and talking about large ideals of helping out lots of people rather than just short term policy promises that makes people happy. Let us all take a beat to love the irony of a young man doing everything he can to better himself and gets called out as being elitist and out of touch. But, to the point, Biden has never been called that, nor would it stick. He's worth somewhere around $300,000, and that includes his house; he took out another mortgage to pay for his sons' college educations. He is, like Moynihan, Russert and many others before him, he's a street Mick. No matter how far he removes himself from less fortunate surroundings, he still thinks of the little guy, still sees a smaller way to do it and still tries to do his job with as little ostentation as possible. No bullshit, but also willing to work to get goals achieved. A street guy of Irish decent, so thus a street Mick. Obama and Biden make up the great tag team of inspirational politician and policy wonk, a potent combination. Too bad people don't vote this way.
People don't vote for vice presidents. At least not very often. The last time any Vice President carried something that wouldn't have been won otherwise was Johnson for Kennedy by carrying Texas. And that could have been due more to his work as Landslide Lyndon. Vice presidents really don't swing voters one way or the other. But, the other time it actually changed an outcome for an election, was the pick, and resignation of Thomas Eagleton did help destroy McGovern's campaign, even if ironically, Eagleton had done that earlier with the acid, amnesty and abortion related comments (even if it was not known at the time he made the comments). So, vice presidents, except in extreme cases, really don't sway a view of a candidate. That said, a bad VP choice can make a person stay home and sometimes make them feel better about holding their nose about voting for a particular candidate. But, Quayle didn't stop George Bush from being elected in 1988, nor did the bold choice of Geraldine Ferraro help Walter Mondale. But, Biden won't fuck up in any ways and will, during the presidency, tell Obama things he doesn't want to hear and get some things done in the Senate when they need to.
You know, all the things a vice president should do.
So it is written, so do I see it.
Joe Biden is quite both the brave and boring choice for Obama. He's classic Washington long term politico, but he's also known to have an independent streak. A loyal party Democrat for a long time, but who has made considerable verbal gaffes. A man who called Slobodan Milosevic a war criminal to his face and once called out a Secretary of State for supporting South Africa while they had apartheid. He's a moderate, but a longstanding liberal who wrote Violence Against Women Act. He's been a member of Congress for 36 years since he was 30 years old, but still lives in Delaware and takes the Amtrak train to and from work almost every day. He is, inherently, a man of himself, and thus full of contradictions. Not quite the maverick that McCain used to be, neither is he the Democrat Republicans slap onto campaign material to get donations just by his face. He's a machine man of the Senate, in that nothing can get done without him, but he's not the Ted Kennedy that can snap his fingers and make new policy happen. However, he is a man that Republicans don't like much and should be afraid of.
When Republicans complained about family values, they could never touch Joe Biden. He was elected to the Senate at 29 (technically, making him too young to serve, as minimum age is 30). His wife and three children were down in DC checking out houses when they were in a terrible care accident. His wife and daughter were killed and his two sons were hospitalized with sever injuries. Biden thought about giving up his seat saying "Delaware can get another Senator, my boys need a father". He was convinced by other Democrats to keep his seat, but wanting his boys to experience as little trauma as possible, so he kept his house in Delaware and his boys stayed in school and grew up in Delaware. He took an Amtrak train every day instead of shortening his commute and moving to DC. He missed out on a lot of the after hours DC social life that goes in Bethesda, Georgetown, Reston and all places around, he was taking care of his boys. That, ladies and gentlemen, is real family values. Hating your children or siblings is not an example of family values. Taking money from reverends and megachurches then hitting the DC nightlife is not an example of family values. So, he's a little hard to paste with the "Democrats hate families" slogan that was popular for so long. So, he's an actual family values Democrat, who is known as both a loyal party man, but not a blind follower. A loudmouth who speaks his mind, tells truth to power and is basically an overgrown street guy.
A great counterpoint to Obama. Obama, a true child of streets, has a nasty tendency to come off as not a street guy. The downside of years of polish, Ivy League education and talking about large ideals of helping out lots of people rather than just short term policy promises that makes people happy. Let us all take a beat to love the irony of a young man doing everything he can to better himself and gets called out as being elitist and out of touch. But, to the point, Biden has never been called that, nor would it stick. He's worth somewhere around $300,000, and that includes his house; he took out another mortgage to pay for his sons' college educations. He is, like Moynihan, Russert and many others before him, he's a street Mick. No matter how far he removes himself from less fortunate surroundings, he still thinks of the little guy, still sees a smaller way to do it and still tries to do his job with as little ostentation as possible. No bullshit, but also willing to work to get goals achieved. A street guy of Irish decent, so thus a street Mick. Obama and Biden make up the great tag team of inspirational politician and policy wonk, a potent combination. Too bad people don't vote this way.
People don't vote for vice presidents. At least not very often. The last time any Vice President carried something that wouldn't have been won otherwise was Johnson for Kennedy by carrying Texas. And that could have been due more to his work as Landslide Lyndon. Vice presidents really don't swing voters one way or the other. But, the other time it actually changed an outcome for an election, was the pick, and resignation of Thomas Eagleton did help destroy McGovern's campaign, even if ironically, Eagleton had done that earlier with the acid, amnesty and abortion related comments (even if it was not known at the time he made the comments). So, vice presidents, except in extreme cases, really don't sway a view of a candidate. That said, a bad VP choice can make a person stay home and sometimes make them feel better about holding their nose about voting for a particular candidate. But, Quayle didn't stop George Bush from being elected in 1988, nor did the bold choice of Geraldine Ferraro help Walter Mondale. But, Biden won't fuck up in any ways and will, during the presidency, tell Obama things he doesn't want to hear and get some things done in the Senate when they need to.
You know, all the things a vice president should do.
So it is written, so do I see it.