No Netroots Sweetheart

Although most liberal bloggers are comfortable with Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden as his running mate, few are excited about it. Biden has never made much of an effort to reach out to the netroots (he was the only Democratic Presidential candidate to skip the 2007 YearlyKos convention), and the netroots have been very critical of Biden's votes for the Iraq War resolution and the 2005 bankruptcy bill.

Still, most liberal bloggers preferred Biden to the other candidates rumored to be at the top of Obama's short list (namely, IN Sen. Evan Bayh and VA Gov. Tim Kaine), and all in all, they consider him an acceptable VP choice. Here's a sampling of the (mostly lukewarm) reactions to the Biden announcement from around the liberal blogosphere:

* Duncan Black: "[Biden's] not my fantasy VP choice or close to it, but nonetheless pretty good. Better than many of the other floated names."

* Matt Stoller: "Biden's not a horrific pick, he's fine considering the choices."

* Matthew Yglesias: "[Biden] wasn't my favorite choice for the gig, but he was far from my least-favorite choice either."

Another blogger who was less than thrilled about the pick was Markos Moulitsas, who has been a particularly harsh critic of the so-called "senator from MBNA". The Daily Kos founder recently argued that Obama should pick "a fresh face in politics who reinforces [his] message of change," such as KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. He warned that "any pick designed to cover up a 'flaw' in Obama (i.e. 'lack of foreign policy credentials') only accentuates those flaws." Unsurprisingly, Moulitsas was disappointed that Obama decided to go with Biden: "If Obama's core message is 'change' and 'judgment' based on his prescience on the Iraq War vote, well then, Biden is the exact opposite of those things."

Still, the netroots believe that Biden has his good qualities. Many liberal bloggers are excited about Biden's willingness to play the role of attack dog, which he amply demonstrated during today's rally in Springfield. Lately the netroots have grown increasingly frustrated by what they perceive to be the Obama camp's lack of aggressiveness, so they're delighted that Obama chose a running mate who isn't afraid to throw punches. Todd Beeton calls Biden "the fighter we've been waiting for" while Steve Benen praises him as "extremely well suited to be an aggressive, attack-dog running mate."

Even Moulitsas, after criticizing the pick, wrote: "Given Obama's reluctance to play the partisan card, it should be fun having a real pit bull in the number two position to do some of the necessary dirty work."

Another quality that the netroots like in Biden is his working-class background. Many liberal bloggers have noted that Biden has one of the lowest net worths of any Senator, which they believe will be a useful asset in the Dem effort to portray John McCain as out of touch with ordinary Americans.

Jonathan Singer writes: "While McCain is someone who is wealthy enough not to know how many houses he and his wife own, Biden is not a wealthy man. [...] Even the city he was born in -- Scranton, Pennsylvania -- kind of embodies this connection to working Americans."

(IAN FAERSTEIN)