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.
