The jury will be out until the first gaffe, (maybe it already happened when he referred to Obama as Barack America?), or until the first week in November, but the McCain campaign has to be smiling at Obama's pick for Veep, Senator Joe Biden. Here's a transcript of the announcement made at a joint appearence in Springfield, Illinois.
Biden is one of two predictable choices that Obama could have made. The other was Evan Bayh of Indiana. Longshots like Kathleen Sebilius, Tim Kaine, Chuck Hagel and especially Hillary Clinton, would have created more uncertainty for McCain. But with Biden, the McCain campaign already has an ad quoting Biden's diss of Obama's experience ready for rollout.
So what was Obama thinking in choosing the 65 year old Delaware Senator? Biden doesn't bring a swing state into Obama's column, he can't run for President in eight years, and he has character baggage in the form of plagiarism charges that are frequently raised by Republicans.
Conventional wisdom is that Obama wanted a foreign relations and national security expert and a glib attack dog to signal the beginning of a new, tougher approach to this campaign.
My only original thought is that Obama also wanted someone who knew McCain well; someone who could point out inside vulnerabilities of which the public and media may be unaware.
Otherwise, I have personally evolved from an anti-Hillary-for-Veep stance to a 'she's-the-way-you-win, stupid' stance. Terry McAuliffe said, “If [Obama] picks Hillary he gets her 18 million supporters and we would win in a cakewalk and control the White House for 16 years.” This seems to look more and more like an accurate assessment. This blog routinely ignores polls, but one poll remains amazingly consistent: about 20% percent of Hillary supporters say they will not support Obama if Hillary is not the nominee or the Veep choice. They said this in the primary and they are saying it now. I have personally talked to several women who are violently dissappointed that Hillary is not the Dems' nominee, to the extent that they will sit this one out to insure that Hillary gets a second crack at it in four years.
I also think that Republicans are scared to death of Clinton. They see a politician who is willing to slog it out in the dirt like they are, and it worries them. But now, they can feel safe in their ability to dish out the negativity in a more one sided way.
Obama, like McCain, has been able to make campaign decisions at crucial times that were great for his campaign. Maybe this is one of them. We'll see.
The jury is out.
About Me
- Tom Wiggin
- Tom Wiggin is a political junkie trapped inside the body of a veteran actor. From a childhood stuffing envelopes in local Democratic elections in Alexandria, VA to volunteering in Nelson Rockefeller’s (?!)’68 campaign; from co-chairing union contract negotiating committees to emceeing fundraisers, Tom’s heart has always been in politics. His numerous acting credits include starring roles on Broadway (Grease, Bobbi Boland); on Prime Time TV (Breaking Away); and on Daytime TV (As the World Turns) for which he garnered two Soap Opera Digest Awards nominations during a ten year run as Kirk Anderson. He recently played Whitey Ford in the ESPN mini series The Bronx Is Burning, and just wrapped filming an independent short, The Banker and the Baseball, in which he played Mr. Meir, the Banker. As a writer, Tom’s screenplay, Gift of the Robin’s Nest, was optioned by Greystone Films and he recently completed a new screenplay, The Band Is Called…Scream. He also wrote for the daytime dramas Another World and As the World Turns.
1 comment:
Those 27% of Hillary voters are infuriating. I have voted for a Clinton FOUR times in my life and have deep rooted affection for them. I am also an Obama supporter. This was a tough campaign. There were times I thought Obama would lose and I was angry at the Clintons for their sometimes underhanded campaign style. If Hillary had won the nomination I would have sucked it up and supported her candidacy. It's only logical to support the candidate whose views closely resemble your first choice candidate and not run off in a huff supporting the other side with views diametrically opposed to your own. Allowing emotion to trump logic is very destructive.
Hillary had become my first choice for VP. Lincoln Chafee would have been an interesting choice. Biden was lower on my list but I like him a lot. He will provide some chops that Obama is either unwilling or unable to use. I think he walks the fine line of not coming across as an "angry black man". Providing that image for the Repubs to take advantage of would be political suicide.
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