I love the headline over the AP essay written by veteran AP political analyst Ron Fournier:
BIDEN PICK SHOWS LACK OF CONFIDENCE
Here's a great quote from Fournier's commentary:
"For all his self-confidence, the 47-year-old Illinois senator [Obama] worried that he couldn't beat Republican John McCain without help from a seasoned politician willing to attack."
Ah, yes. Willing to attack. The thing about Biden, one of my family members said, is not that he just attacks. It's that he's an attack dog. A salient point, considering Mr. Obama promised the country his campaign would rise above rabid and feral partisanship. But like nearly all political promises, such is short-lived.
What does Biden bring, or so nearly EVERYONE avers? He brings gravitas, and foreign policy experience to Mr. Obama's rather unimpressive resume. The Biden gift proves that Mr. Obama's having "lived abroad" does not add up to much. It also proves that Biden is Obama's Cheney: we will all know who really runs the White House -- who the real 'decider' will be -- if Mr. Obama is elected.
And what else does Biden bring? Well, according to one pundit we get this:
"As he [Biden] speaks, as he goes on and on and spins his long statements, hypotheticals, and free associations--as he demonstrates yet again . . . that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back--you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going. I love him. He's human, like a garrulous uncle after a drink."
Thanks Peggy Noonan (and James Taranto) for this hilarious description of our country's potential "new" (What do you mean by that?) vice-president.
So, who is Biden? He's a rambling po-mo nuanced-to-the-gills old Washington insider who is Barack Obama's Dick Cheney, an old white dude who brings change we can believe in; though that change is just one in name, not attitude, posture or vision.
Amazing: The Democrats pretty much rejected Biden every time he ran for the White House. Now, somehow, he is suitable to have the White House -- in an emergency. Is he "the man" called on to guide "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" (as Biden so deftly described Mr. Obama in early 2007) as Obama "leads" America toward a "brighter future"?
The only way ANY candidate can ever bring "change we can believe in" is if he or she runs for office as neither a Republican nor a Democrat. The world -- including the Europeans! -- knows that there is nothing new under the American sun. Especially this time.
Food for thought, or not.
©Bill Gnade 2008/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
4 comments:
How comforting for a Republican politician to know that even if Americans would stop trading in their liberty for paternal security, they'll be trading in their freedoms for maternal coddling instead.
I think McCain could do well to take Ron Paul as VP, even if he is a bit eccentric. In my opinion McCain needs a foil too, only he would have the advantage of being the "safe" leader above a riskier breath of outside air (instead of vice versa).
Your comment reminds me of something I wrote a while ago: In Loco Parentis.
McCain's VP? Maybe Romney, who IS a Washington outsider but simply has insider written all over him. I am not as familiar with Ron Paul as perhaps I should be; I dismissed him, unfairly, as the Kucinich of the Republican Party.
I have mentioned to a few folks the name of Michael Steele, who is relatively unknown but did at least manage to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland (and he ran a decent, albeit failed, campaign for US Senate). He is known now as a guest host on Hannity and Colmes (which does not give him chops, only recognition and PR).
I've mentioned him in several places simply to see what sort of reaction I get, particularly since Mr. Steele is an African-American conservative. He is, obviously, both gifted and an outsider. But choosing him would appear, at least to many, as too calculated, even cynical: it would be hurled about that McCain is pandering, using race. But why shouldn't the Republicans present an AA VP? After all, Bush's White House/Cabinet was the most racially/ethnically diverse in history; and both Condi Rice and Colin Powell are way ahead of Barack Obama on the "succession by merit" scale. Being black in the Republican Party is not tokenism. The party has a long and proud history of being on the right side of the race issue (Democrats forget which side was really the racist side).
Anyhow, a few very hasty thoughts.
Peace,
BG
I've always found it amazing that the Republicans don't remind people that the real reason the Civil Rights legislation passed in the mid Sixties was because the Republicans supported LBJ's initiative. In fact, it was the Democrats segregation policies which led to George Wallace leaving the party with the old Confederacy which in turn led to Richard Nixon.
In point of fact, my father, a life-long Democrat left the party because of its refusal to support LBJ on Civil Rights.
Cheers.
I knew I'd gotten the maternal/paternal thing from one of your posts, but I see the rest of the sentiment echoes what you said there already, too.
I can't say I blame you for dismissing Ron Paul. He is strong on ideals and weak on compromise; I don't think he's right about everything and I also don't think he would have made a very good president.
But seeing Obama talk about how he was picking a VP that wouldn't be afraid to challenge [some of] his ideas made me wish the GOP would be a bit more considerate of dissenting opinions amongst conservatives as well. It's wishful thinking, but it seems like Ron Paul could make a good VP. Paired with McCain, he might soften the "more PATRIOT Act, more Fatherland Security, more TSA" vibe a fourth-generation war hero is wont to give off. (To say nothing of corporate lobbying...I think I trust a physician more than the husband of Anheuser-Busch to look out for the people instead of the giants.)
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