The Blog Formerly Known As Vote '08

Let’s start with the comments here on the

“Jeff” writes

“i disagree with the decision he make.”

& “Tom” says

“What a great choice! Biden is uniquely suited to bring experience AND change. He brings expierience because he has been in D.C. for so long, but change also because he has not been changed by D.C. I think it is good to have a rounded ticket, and I don’t think it lessens the “change” slogan of Obama’s campaign. Minus any famous Biden verbal gaffes, I don’t think there is many ways to spin this in a negative light.”

Weigh in yourself & we’ll post your comment!

Other opinions:

EJ Dionne, the Washington Post says this will help with Clinton supporters:

“After Biden ended his own presidential candidacy in January, he declined to endorse either Obama or Clinton. Instead, as the two rivals battled on without him, Biden was regularly on the phone with both of them, he told me earlier this year, offering views and advice and sometimes just comfort. Each candidate knew he was talking to the other. Each trusted him.

Biden is thus a Clinton-friendly choice, even if not all her supporters will see it that way. One of the largest gaps between Obama and Clinton is her perception that he has not worked as hard as she has to master foreign policy. In Biden, Obama has an interlocutor whom Clinton respects.”

David Brooks of the Washington Post approves of the pick:

“If Obama is honest in saying he wants a vice president who will be direct in stating his views, and will not worry about offending the president, he has found the right man.

Biden brings a blue-collar sensibility that has been lacking in Obama’s campaign, reflecting his background in Scranton, Pa., and Wilmington, Del. I know of Democratic governors who fear that Biden’s prolix rhetoric will go right over the heads of their constituents. But he has worked hard at shortening his answers to questions, and — as David Brooks noted in his New York Times column urging Biden’s selection — this is a guy whose authenticity and heart-on-the-sleeve passions are real.

The message he surely has brought to Obama is: Your background looks elitist to many of the people I represent. The way to overcome that impression is to be in their neighborhoods, talk directly to them in small groups and show them you really understand the struggles in their lives. Biden surely does that.”

Jacob Heilbrunn of the Huffington Post worries that Biden may use Cheney as a model:

Biden has several decades of experience dealing with foreign leaders and a seasoned staff that he would bring with him to an Obama administration. It could be that vice-president Dick Cheney serves as his model. Biden might even be tempted to set up his own parallel foreign policy establishment, as did Cheney — to the detriment of the Bush administration. Having witnessed the catastrophic consequences of Cheney’s power-grab, however, Biden may well avoid going down that road. Nevertheless, Biden will clearly be a powerful figure in an Obama administration, focused on foreign policy.

…

The conventional wisdom is that Obama made a safe choice with Biden. It’s wrong. It was a bold one that will further test his ability to coordinate his campaign effectively–something he has done brilliantly so far.

Michael Smerconish of the Huffington Post says the Biden pick gives McCain a good reason to select Tom Ridge, keeping Biden’s birth-state of Pennsylvania in play:

Biden tilts Pennsylvania in Obama’s direction. Which is why McCain has just been handed an opportunity to do something I suspect he wanted to do all along: choose Ridge as his running mate. Obama-Biden vs. McCain-Ridge. We can settle it all in a polling place right here in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Here’s a “gee, ya think?” piece from the Wall Street Journal that outlines how Team Biden lobbied hard to make their man the #2.

The London Times says Biden poses no threat to Obama .. but isn’t that much of an asset either:

“Senator Biden is no Hillary Clinton; he presents no threat though little promise to Mr Obama. In the primary elections, Mrs Clinton gained 18 million votes. Among women she had a devoted following - and who still believe she should have been the candidate. If she had been on the ticket, she would have brought a lot of votes with her, as did Johnson. In rejecting her as his running-mate, Mr Obama has taken the risk that his margin of victory might be wiped out. “

The Politico’s Kenneth Vogel points out Biden’s past praising of McCain could come back to haunt him:

The Delaware Democrat and the Arizona Republican have served in the Senate together for more than two decades. And Biden, a prolific talker, has rattled off in recent years a string of testimonials to McCain’s character and stances that the GOP can be expected to roll out to undercut Biden’s critiques of McCain.

I expected this. The AP is reporting that some (GOP) Georgia politicians are saying the choice of Biden is a slap in the face to Southerners:

      ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia Republicans criticized Barack Obama’s choice for vice president, saying he has effectively written off the South by picking U.S. Sen. Joe Biden as his runningmate.
During a conference Saturday morning, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and U.S. Rep. Tom Price told reporters that Obama chose a vice presidential candidate with a record nearly as liberal as his own, which will not appeal to the conservative South.
Obama has said he wants to compete in Georgia. He won easily in Georgia in the Feb. 5 president primary with overwhelming support of the state’s large black population.

I’ll add more thoughts to this thread later, so come back.

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