The Biden Wing of the Democratic Party

Barack Obama has clearly sewn up the Biden wing of the Democratic Party.

What that represents is not entirely clear. The MSN seems to want to anoint him as a working class hero, a man who has lived through adversity and now has a son going to Iraq. He is painted as man of great experience, more than 30 years in the Senate.

Much of this, except for the political longevity seems new to me. Joe Biden has been on the national scene since at least his failed run for the Presidency in 1988. He garnered a handful of votes this year, his campaign being most notable for commenting on Obama’s hygiene and lack of experience.

I suppose a man who is largely unknown will get to define himself and if he wants to he can cast himself as working class hero. But it rings a bit tinny for this Senator with decade’s long service in the Senate with his principal focus being foreign affairs all of a sudden picking up the cause of the common man.

Biden adds little to the ticket geographically. Delaware is a safe state and if this guy can help in PA well, good, but if that’s the margin of victory then Obama has more problems than it appears.

There is nothing intrinsically exciting about Biden and this may be why he garnered only about 250,000 votes out of 37 million cast.

I had wanted to say he was the Dick Gephardt of the new millennium, but that’s unfair to Gephardt.

It is unfair to to make too much of the VP choice, and in truth Obama made a decent choice in a bad situation. Biden is smart and a highly respected politician, a statesman of sorts. He also is not shy on the attack. All of these qualities will stand him in good stead.

It remains debatable about whether the pick satisfied the cardinal rule: don’t hurt yourself with your pick.

Let’s start with Obama’s biggest problem: Hillary Clinton. Obama cleverly has pushed Mrs. C off the stage for the moment. With her roll call, and the family speeches she had threatened to take over the convention and by delaying his pick until Saturday at 3 AM (!). Obama was able to dominate the news cycle until today and will do so through Monday, at least, so he got a short term advantage.

But Obama has done nothing to stem his long term damage.

The PUMAs are furious over the way Hil was treated in the process. It has become clear that she was not even vetted at the end. She was passed over for a man whom she outpaced in the primaries by a factor of over 75 to 1. A man who is supposed to do for Obama what everyone believes she herself could do. Nail down blue collar white votes in places like PA and OH. Something she had done handily long after Biden left the race.

Many will dismiss these PUMAs a Republican figment, but the pundits are on the air talking about it. Susan Estrich just said on Fox that her email is “buzzing with anger” over the way Hillary was treated. And the McCain campaign has already put up an ad criticizing Obama for passing her over. That sounds like a political first. Got to websites like “Hillary is 44” and you get a picture of dissatisfied voters willing to vote for McCain, if only to punish Obama and the establishment that they feel unfairly turned them aside. There is no fury like a woman scorned!

Many of you have heard the PUMA leaders on various media outlets proclaiming their disaffection. There is no doubt that Hillary and most likely Bill will be gracious at the convention, but they know their supporters will understand the code under which they are living and will carry the water for them independent of anything that the former first couple says.

The next problem: The VP pick is supposed to fill out the top dog’s weaknesses. Sometimes this is electoral, sometimes it demographic or personality. Here it is experiential. What the Biden pick shows is that Obama felt the heat of his inexperience, particularly on the foreign policy front and by picking Biden he filled in that gap, but also highlighted it.

Opponents snipe at each other all time, but Biden went to the jugular attacking Obama on his seminal weakness, lack of experience.

Finally, if you listened to the speeches today from Springfield there wasn’t a lot of hope and change. We got a clear signal that Obama is abandoning that theme.

First he choose anti-change with the consummate Washington Insider in Biden and then both he and his running mate went to a populist theme of going after the working class and the gripes of the little people against the entrenched interests. There is no change there, no post-partisanship, no reaching across the aisle and finding common found in that. Populism has been the message of the Democratic Party since FDR. Ain't nothing new in that.

If Springfield was any evidence of where the Obama campaign is heading I say it is heading for a big “ho hum”. The bloom is off the rose. I don’t think Biden cements a thing with the true believers; as Hillary might have given them hope for victory. Now it remains a slog.

If McCain is smart he will avoid the trap that Biden represents. To go for the attack dog, the big debater. He needs to use his pick more epically, more tonally.

Romey will be looked on as the safe choice, but he brings demographic weakness with evangelicals. And give life to the seven to eleven house gaffe. Pawlenty is the sentimental choice and will bring youth and freshness and his own heartland populist appeal to the Sam’s Club voters. Ridge and Liebermann’s trial balloons sunk like lead.

I continue to come back to Rob Portman, the telegenic family man from Cincinnati whose quiet authority and laser like intelligence will assure that he will hold his own in any conversation. His coming from Ohio will help and draw the contrast with Biden as the Eastern pick. His stones in the budget and trade and economic matters generally will stand him in good stead.

That Portman is a former official of the Bush Administration is his only problem. But I wonder how much this guilt by association goes. Portman survived his stint in Washington with his reputation enhanced. He is likely to get a media honeymoon. His personal likeability assures that. In truth the Republicans do not lack for attack dogs against Barack Obama. Besides he is better attacked abstractly through the media rather than directly, personally.

McCain has the chance to go for a game changer and a dark horse who the media will be forced to cover and discover, it should be good for substantial coverage right through and passed the convention.

McCain-Portman ‘08

This ad is in SUCH poor taste and is so blatantly disingenuous (what we've come to expect from McSame/Rove).

Hillary ASKED not to be vetted unless she was the VP choice.

And if women really would rather vote for McSame, then I guess they really AREN'T concerned for women's rights after all!

PUMA MY A$$ (or PUMAMA).

Let's see how long the Dems and Hillary allow this ad to run.

Btw, PeteKent, we can thank Rob Portman for shipping all those Ohio jobs overseas. GREAT VP choice! Hahaha.

The "Passed Over" ad is a sign of desperation on the part of McCain's campaign. He's such a weak candidate that they have to resort to this silly stunt to get votes. Why aren't they running postive ads highlighting McCain's strengths? Because they can't. He's an empty suit and a war monger who'll only continue the brain dead policies of Bush.

JK:

You might want to check out McCain's You Tube channel and watch the half a dozen ads he has released since early July talking about his strengths. This Hillary ad is tactical and serves to remind women and independents that Obama is not a new politician who is about uniting or new politics or change. He is about old school inside the beltway politicians. That was his first choice out of the box as a Presidential nominee. McCain is asking people to evaluate that. Exactly what is wrong with that?

OSAMA BIN LADEN
OBAMA CUM BIDEN

chillingly ominous !

It makes sense to me, that the muslim side of B. Hussain O. would prefer a man over a woman in the spot of VP. He no want some woman telling him how to run things. I think she get passed over because he es affraid that she will overshadow him like a nagging wife o somethin.

I thinks its funny that when comments were made by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden concerning Obamasia's incompetence, nobody thought a thing about it. Now however that it is being replayed it is a right wing attack. Come on people, these people didn't just wake up and change their minds about this guy they were bought off to buy in. Its all about the money and the power. Its a game, they said these things about osama to get your vote and they lost, now they are going to fill their sails to the prevailling winds. If the wind chanages direction again so will the politcal ship.