Firstly the many people who signed up for the ‘special’ text message announcement of Senator Obama choice for “running mate” were treated with great disrespect. Democrats were out singing the praises of Senator Biden (for example on Fox News) on Friday morning. Then an aircraft was sent to pick up Senator Biden from Delaware and take him to Chicago (this was first spotted by a blogger I believe) – so that he could appear with Senator Obama in the Saturday event.
This was duly noted (by both American and international media) as confirmation that Senator Obama had picked Senator Biden.
Everyone paying even slight attention knew.
Everyone from evil ‘rightwing’ foes of all that is ‘socially just’ in Britain (people like me), to casual watchers of, for example, Indian English language television.
Everyone knew – accept those activists who had trusted the Obama campaign to send them a text message and were away from the broadcast media or the internet. The texts were not sent out till this morning.
As for Senator Biden himself: a totally pro-union (i.e. supportive of government special pro-union laws) politician. And someone who is ardently in favour of expanding the size and scope of American government health, education and welfare programs – a Welfare Statist.
Almost needless to say Senator Biden is also a ‘gun control’ man and so on.
However: Senator Biden’s son will be off to serve in Iraq this October – which will show patriotism. And Senator Biden himself is strongly anti Castro – and is clearly from the non-communist left. Perhaps this is what Senator Obama meant when he promised (on CBS) that he would pick someone with very different opinions from his own, who would “challenge my thinking”.
“Everyone knew – accept those”
Perhaps ‘Everyone knew – except those ..”?
Yay.
A product of Marxist intellectual influences and Chicago Machine ethics with a thin resume selects a New England leftist who’s been humiliated every time he’s run for President on his own..
McCain has to be feeling better about his chances with this bit of news. Obama basically just wrote off much of the South and the West.
Not that I’m complaining, even though everybody I actually liked was out of the race before my state held our caucuses. (Can Sunfish hold his nose enough to vote for the guy with the wife with the impressive chest and beer distributorship? Stay tuned!)
Mr. Marks, you’ve pretty much nailed it. I would add that, in my admittedly subjective opinion, Biden’s a charmless jerk, and this will shine through in the campaign. I’ve seen him during committee hearings–he uses his time to make rambling, self-serving harangues of witnesses who are helpless to respond. Obnoxious, and lacking an inner censor.
I don’t like the thought of having to vote for Senator McCain, for the purpose of denying the White House to a creepy, jumped-up demagogue, but I certainly like McCain’s chances better now, than four months ago.
Good for Biden’s son. (And for Mc Cain’s kids and for Sarah Palin’s son etc etc.) BTW How many MPs have children in the combat zone ?)
Other than that, Biden is the best possible choice. From the GOP perspective. He’s a snob, a blowhard and has an amazing capacity to use 50 words when one will do.
He is a textbook example of what happens to most Senators after they have been in the institution for too long. He really does think that what Copernicus really meant was that the solar system revolves around ME !
I think the previous posters have it right. I’ve disliked Biden for decades (I’m originally from the Northeast and so have had the opportunity to observe him closely for a long time.) He’s a Ted Kennedy wanna-be but lacking the intellect (which is really saying something!).
This selection was a sop to the party machine, sort of a Hillary Clinton surrogate, and was probably perceived by Obama’s advisors as being politically “safe”. Biden will certainly contribute nothing to Obama’s election chances; he won’t be bringing any moderates into the fold, which is what Obama needs to put him over the top. Frankly, I think that Evan Bayh would have been a far superior choice.
Obama bin Biden.
Too perfect.
There seems to be an assumption that the choice of Biden is about Obama winning an election. Maybe it’s about Obama staying alive.
Remember what happened in Dallas to the last young, energetic, charismatic Democrat Senator to become President of the US? But with Biden as VP, Barrack is totally safe. Every would-be Lee Harvey Oswald is kicking his dog in exaspertion, and putting his gun back in the closet.
Sunfish asked:
Why don’t you just cast a write-in vote for the woman with the impressive chest and beer distributorship? 😉
Sunfish
You mentioned the Marxist upbringing and the Chicago machine influence but you forgot the Black Liberation Theology.
Just because O! dumpr Rev. Wright under the bus, doesn’t mean he’s totally forgotten those twenty years of sermons.
I agree with Alice about Biden. That’s why I always said Hilary would never be O!’s pick.
The thought of having Hilary a heartbeat away from the Presidency – and it’s your heart – would be enough to put Obama in an early grave on it’s own. From fear.
Yes, by Biden’s son. I have long wondered why politicians should take either credit or blame for what their children do in terms of military service – especially from a blog so keen to stress the primacy of the individual. If Biden’s son goes to Iraq, it doesn’t mean Biden’s any more patriotic than if Biden’s son doesn’t go to Iraq. Why should the service or otherwise by children of politicians be used as barometers of the politician’s patriotism?
Novus
I beg to differ, in the US military service is becoming more and more of a family thing. Myabe McCain’s kids are doing it because their father, grandfather and greatgrandfather did it, Of course they had to volunteer, like everyone else, but they were following an example.
In Biden’s case and in Palin’s also the kids seem to have been following their individual ideas, not a family tradition.
In any case family and individualism are not as incompatible as statism and individualism.
BTW, Now that we’ve heard from the fake Neil Kinnock , what has the real one been up to lately?
Sunfish, a small point, but Biden is not a “New England leftist.” Biden is from Delaware. I realize that you’re from the West, and your Eastern geography might be a tad weak, but Delaware is not part of New England. He is merely a “Mid-Atlantic leftist.”
Ted S, the problem with your idea is that in the US you can’t write in a presidential candidate. We’re actually voting for electors in the Electoral College, not presidential candidates. So Sunfish is reduced to voting for her by proxy (i.e., through her husband). Too bad.
Taylor, maybe children are following their parents into the services more and more; all I’m saying is that it doesn’t automatically make the father more patriotic if the son serves in the military, and to suggest otherwise, as Paul appeared to do and as many others have done, seems to me to consider children as mere pawns in their parents’ political PR games, and entirely discounts their individual choices. Why should Biden get any credit or political capital because his son served? He doesn’t own his son. It’s not his prerogative to pack his son off to war to make himself look good.
Novus, what Paul was actually doing was pointing out that the public perception of Sen. Biden will be that he is patriotic if his son goes off to Iraq. This, as you will no doubt be aware, is a fr cry from Biden actually being a patriot.
Oh, I could see Biden being useful. Let’s say he was in Georgia when the Russian tanks came in. He could lecture them about all sorts of things. After a while their wheel bearings would rust fast, their troops would grow long beards; leather would turn to dust and fuel to jelly.
And then he would take a breath. And continue.
(on the other hand, after five minutes of impersonating an English speaking French diplomat, a Russian private might just run him over. And, who could blame him?)
When Biden quoted Kinnock,The Economist had a photo of him shot from such an angle that it looked like Kinnock. He was the occasion for actual wit on the part of he Economist!
A friend with inside connections inside the beltway says Biden is an exacta among congress critters-exceptionally stupid and nasty is his rep among the congressional staffers. He will play well.
Laird:
I’m an American (actually, I live in New York, so you might not consider me American 😉 so I know about the Electoral College.
Here in New York, however, the names of the electors appear nowhere on the ballot. And I’m pretty certain that in 2004, there was a window above the names of the presidential candidates where one could cast a write in vote. It’s part of the same row of windows for write-in votes for all the other offices. (In my corner of New York, the ballot is set up so that each party is on one horizontal row and each race takes up one column, or more if it’s an election in which more than one candidate is returned to office, as in the county legislative election.) I don’t know what would happen if a write-in candidate won New York’s presidential election, however.
I know well about this row because it resulted in my being a victim of vote fraud back in 2000. I cast write in votes in the judicial elections, and when I went to do so in 2000, I was extremely surprised to see that my votes for 1998 were still there! Not that anybody gave a damn about my being a victim. I called the county board of elections and never got a call back.
Obama bin Biden! That’s fantastic! It could be deadly if used by GOP’s propaganda machine. I’m doubtful though; no amount of MEDIOCRITY displayed by the AUSTRALIAN LABOUR PARTY before and during the last elections dissuaded the moronic and ignorant Ozzie form voting local MARXISTS into the power. Same going to be with Yanks, I’m affraid…
And Senator Biden himself is strongly anti Castro – and is clearly from the non-communist left.
How does he get along with commies other than Castro? The man wants to be President, and it’s possible that he’s just smart enough to understand that winning Florida without Dade County is very, very difficult.
I really don’t know enough about the guy to say.
Quoth Kevin B:
I discount the sermons because I think Barry didn’t count them to begin with.
In urban US politics, in particular among people who want to pretend to speak for everyone with a particular amount of melanin, church affiliation is critical. A “Community Organizer” won’t be taken seriously if he’s not seen as a member of the “community,” and being a member of a church in the community is part and parcel of being a member of the community.
It almost doesn’t even matter which church. Had Obama decided to follow Catholic priest Pfleger (basically a white Jeremiah Wright) or even the Daley Crime Family in-law who filled in for Pfleger during his suspension instead, that would have been just as legit. As long as the church’s membership was largely black and made an occasional pretense at Christianity it would have been good enough.
Meaning: his departure from the church isn’t important. He was never actually there to begin with. He joined in order to punch a ticket and project a certain image of himself and probably spent most of the two decades napping or daydreaming about inviting the choir director’s wife into the coat closet or something like that, rather than actually receiving whatever message Wright had managed to dream up that day.
“I’ve disliked Biden for decades (I’m originally from the Northeast and so have had the opportunity to observe him closely for a long time.) He’s a Ted Kennedy wanna-be but lacking the intellect (which is really saying something!)” -Laird
Bloody hell Laird! That’s brilliant.
OK, as a Brit I remember the Kinnock fiasco. Shouldn’t that have killed Joe Biden’s political career stone dead. Not least because it demonstrated that he’s a quarter-wit.
I reckon McCain ought to pick Sarah Palin and Obama will be toast.
Oh. And WTF is a “community organiser”? They mocked Ronnie for having been a B-movie actor. They mocked Ford for having been a model. But at least I know what acting or modelling are about. I have no idea WTFF a comunity organiser is. For the past year I have been the warden of a religious building which is hired out to groups in my community. I organize the bookings and stuff. Does that make me a “community organiser” too? Does that make me eligible for high office? I wouldn’t mind being PM. Hell, even president of the USA (if they change the constitution)! I would solemnly swear not to get blow-jobs from chubby interns or run-up a deficit that defies not only economics but the very laws of arithmetic itself or do anything equally daft.
Vote, vote Nick M!
Nick M:
“What is a Community Organiser” – look up Saul Alinsky.
Sunfish:
It was the “Liberation Theology” that was important. Certainly “Black” is also important – to attract some black people to the cause (the word “Black” was not added by Rev Wright, he is a follower).
“Liberation Theology” is Marxism with a bit of “false flag” God talk. Adding “black” was only important to draw in some black people in places like Chicago.
There are anti Libertation Theology churches in Chicago – some with congregations almost entirely black. But Barack Obama did not choose to become a member of one of these churches.
Mr Pedant:
Accept and except.
Sorry.
I can’t wait for Mc Cain’s inspired choice of VP so that I can tell whether the game is really over! My feeling is that the need for candidates to nominate VP’s who are symbols for what they wish they were is a really silly thing. Can anyone help here, is this really the worst combination that there has ever been? I do not think that all preceding nominees have been geniuses either.
Actually, W’s choice of Cheney made a lot of sense, and also was way beyond a mere campaigning trick. Whether one agrees with their policies is a different matter.
If Obama’s church membership had been calculated and aware, his two-decade support of racism, anti-Americanism, and bigotry would show that he is willing to throw not only his country but his children under the bus.
If it was, in fact, unaware, whether calculated or not, it shows extremely poor judgment.
Having tried to avoid the taxpayer-funded week-long DNC commercial, I was unable to avoid a sound bite from Mrs. Obama, demonstrating her mastery of the pronoun “who” and of anacoluthon. Re-education sure is rewarding.
I don’t know of any, but there are a small number of MPs who are ex-forces the most notable being Patrick Mercer from the Conservatives. The rest are mostly Tories, but Labour have one too, however, he’s a dickhead and about as unmilitary as you can get without actually being a civilian. There are also some reservists in the House, I know that one of them has deployed during the parliamentary recess before, but again Tories.
Biden is a Senator so you should be looking at the House of Lords, the number is probably higher and certainly there are a lot of ex-forces in the House of Lords. The Chief of the Defence Staff is traditionally enobled upon retirement and a good number of the remaining hereditaries will have military experience. Of course if the hereditary peers were still there you’d probably find a good proportion would have sons in the forces, perhaps in the Guards and Cavalry…
Community Organizer = Rabble Rouser