Veepwatch, Democratic edition: The wait is over

[thatcrazycajun]

After letting his minions supporters know first by text message (how up-to-date!), Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, two days before the start of the convention in Denver that will culminate in his coronation as the Democratic Party's 2008 Presidential candidate, announced his choice of a running mate for the vice-presidential nomination today. A short list that had included vanquished primary opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, Indiana's Evan Bayh and Virginia governor Tim Kaine has finally been winnowed down to one.

Delaware's senior Senator, Joseph Biden Jr., also a former primary challenger, was introduced on the podium in the Illinoisan capital of Springfield by Obama, who called him "a leader who understood the rising costs confronting working people and will always put their dreams first."

Clinton issued the requisite public statement (written, of course; mouthing it out loud would no doubt have caused her to have an aneurysm) containing all the things that politeness, party solidarity, tradition and political pressure required her to say for the occasion: "an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant... a purposeful and dynamic vice president who will help Sen. Obama both win the presidency and govern this great country." (Most of this is based on CNN.com's report, which can be found here.)

Unofficially, Biden is seen by most as having been picked chiefly to shore up the (considerable) weaknesses of the main candidate. The biggest knocks against Obama's candidacy have been his lack of experience, particularly in the area of foreign policy, and his inability to connect with the predominantly white lunch-bucket voters Clinton won so convincingly in West Virginia and other states during the primaries. Figuring out how a senator who has presided over the business-friendly (read: lax) regulatory and tax structure that has made his home state the choice for headquartering of so many huge multinational US corporations for decades can be seen as "the working-man and -woman's friend" is left as an exercise for the reader.

Biden will also seriously undermine Obama's much-vaunted claim to be the candidate of "change" in Washington, given that Biden is now in his sixth (!!) term as a Senator...and remember, those terms last six years each. If he's so good at "making Washington work for the American people," why hasn't he done a better job of it in 30+ years under the U.S. Capitol dome? And why didn't the people of Iowa think enough of him to give him a bigger turnout than the one that caused him to abandon his quest for the nomination after only one primary? And as Republican nominee-anoint John McCain's campaign has already pointed out (and CNN.com's article notes), Biden was one of Obama's harshest critics back in the primaries. Now, all Obama has to do is offer him the veep slot and suddenly Obama is the man? This smacks of principle suddenly being junked in the name of ambition...and we've already seen both Obama and McCain do far too much of that this year.

Couldn't Obama have at least given some sort of nod to the women and others who wanted Clinton to win by really embracing change and picking a female running mate? Say, Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius, whom the New York Times lauded as a far better choice here? Or was she too boring on the stump and too liberal in the policy area? How about Colorado's former House member Pat Schroeder, who's had experience on family economic issues and has run for the nomination herself before? Or Michigan's popular governor, Jennifer Granholm? It's not as if there were no credible women available besides Attilary. But no, he had to go pick another old white guy, for the same reason Junior Bush needed Darth Cheney back in 2000: to give people some sense that there will be at least one grownup in the team should they actually win the White House. And in Obama's case, to make it easier for the last vestiges of racism to be put aside by some voters and get them to "X" the touch-sensor for a black man.

Frankly, I'm disappointed. But I'm still going to work for the ticket because the only other real possibility is four to eight more years of GOP misrule. And we absolutely, positively, no-fucking-around CANNOT afford that.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Wesley Clark was the best option. Until the Republican attack hounds got after him for a TRUE STATEMENT and the spineless, ball-less Dem leadership let them get away with it.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I've always been for Clarke.

When was the last time a Senator was elected President? Kennedy? (I know we've had candidates since then who had been in the Senate but in terms of moving straight from the Senate to the White House.) And now we have a ticket with two Senators.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Clark was stabbed in th back by his own party for telling the truth.

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this was too "safe" and "business at usual" a choice at this point, even if the Veep is (USUALLY, except when you get someone like Gepetto Cheney and his string-pulling buddies) a relative toothless post. It puts the crest on a wave of disappointment that Obama is not quite what many of us thought (hoped) he was during the primaries. *sigh* It is really possible for the Democrats to lose this election in spite of the Republicans....

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

ye gods and little fishies I hope not.... OTOH, given the dumping of principle by the *entire* Democrat leadership - including Obama - during the FISA debacle, I'm not sure just how much better this new boss will be than the old boss. I agree that we can't have another four or eight more years of same-old same-old... but the cynic in me is looking for my French book...

Speaking of Gepetto. What *really* needs to happen is to find who the heck is holding *Obama's* puppet strings, the ones that got yanked on pretty hard during FISA... and, let's just say, do the needful. Obama, like Al Gore before him, will probably do just fine left to his own devices. Or well enough, anyway. Time to wag the dog.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Biden's got serious foreign policy experience, which Obama lacks. As you put it,

Unofficially, Biden is seen by most as having been picked chiefly to shore up the (considerable) weaknesses of the main candidate.

--- And what's wrong with that?

Choosing a woman would have even further pissed off many of Hilary's supporters: "Hell, if he wanted a woman SHE'S the one!", and so on. Here I agree with your wording: at least given some sort of nod to the women and others who wanted Clinton to win. Yes, it would have been a symbolic gesture, and would have been seen and attacked as just that and nothing more. I have nothing politically against any of the women you named, but do you really think that any of them would have been a stronger running mate? I don't.

Needless (I hope) to say, I absolutely agree with your last sentence.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

"Or Michigan's popular governor, Jennifer Granholm?"

She's not eligible to be President:

Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959 in Vancouver, British Columbia

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen that about her; thanks for hipping me.

[gorgeousgary]

One is tempted to observe the presidential eligibility clause is probably one of the few clauses of the Constitution that hasn't been either broken or stretched nearly to it's yield point over the last 7-1/2 years...

Unless...

[oldfolkieathome.livejournal.com]

Let Ah-nold declare himself desirous of running and watch it fall like the Berlin wall.

Not necessarily that he'd do any better or worse job than any previous incumbent.