No Clinton, no Edwards. Maybe there's hope for the Democratic Party after all.

Biden seems like a nice, safe choice who will have no appreciable effect on the election. I can't imagine there are any demographic or geographic voting blocs that are going to switch alignments because of him.

I assume Obama must be feeling pretty good about his place in the polls, because he passed up Kaine and Bayh who might have made a difference in states McCain has to win and Clinton who would have shored  up support amongst white woman.
Although Biden, with his decades in the Senate, provides the ticket with the experience Obama lacks.  

I imagine the McCain camp has to feel pretty good about the selection.  They've already focused on  Biden's statement that Obama wasn't ready for the Presidency and Biden's record of gaffes and plagiarism will give pundits plenty of ammunition. I imagine the Republicans believe that  Biden  won't significantly help Obama and that given his penchant for running his mouth, they hope that Biden will commit a major gaffe.

A major reason (some would say key) that Obama managed to prevail over HRC was that early on, Obama had staked out a strong anti-war position whereas HRC had to live with her voting record on the issue.

This presumably was why the left and the democratic party ultimately swung to Obama - HRC, handicapped by her stance on Iraq simply couldn't close the deal.

So its with some amount of puzzlement/bewilderment that I see Obama choosing Joe Biden -- a man whose position on Iraq is virtually the same as HRC and as a representative of the state of Delaware (unofficial motto: never miss an opportunity to fleece Americans from other states) virtually embodies the status quo.

I understand that campaign strategies are to play to the base in primaries and tack to the center in the final stretch, but I can't quite grok which part of the 'center' likes Joe Biden enough to outweigh those on the left who see him as an enabler of the Iraq war.

If you grant that Obama was right on Iraq, how is Biden by virtue of his 'foreign policy experience' a suitable VP? Wouldn't that sort of logic mean that John McCain then trumps Obama in the suitability for president stakes?

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

Sept. 22, 1987, Biden Admits Error:

"Most of Mr. Biden's statement was in response to a report in this week's issue of Newsweek magazine on a tape recording made by the C-SPAN network of an appearance by Mr. Biden at a home in Claremont, N.H...

The tape...showed a testy exchange in response to a question about his law school record from a man identified only as ''Frank.'' Mr. Biden looked at his questioner and said: ''I think I have a much higher I.Q. than you do.''

He then went on to say that he ''went to law school on a full academic scholarship - the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship,'' Mr. Biden said. He also said that he ''ended up in the top half'' of his class and won a prize in an international moot court competition. In college, Mr. Biden said in the appearance, he was ''the outstanding student in the political science department'' and ''graduated with three degrees from college.'' Comments on Assertions

In his statement today, Mr. Biden, who attended the Syracuse College of Law and graduated 76th in a class of 85, acknowledged: ''I did not graduate in the top half of my class at law school and my recollection of this was inacurate.''

As for receiving three degrees, Mr. Biden said: ''I graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science. My reference to degrees at the Claremont event was intended to refer to these majors - I said 'three' and should have said 'two.' '' Mr. Biden received a single B.A. in history and political science.

''With regard to my being the outstanding student in the political science department,'' the statement went on. ''My name was put up for that award by David Ingersoll, who is still at the University of Delaware.

...Newsweek said Mr. Biden had gone to Syracuse ''on half scholarship based on financial need.'' ''

For those who might find the headline a bit obscure - one of Delaware's state nicknames is Small Wonder.

around 3AM US Eastern Time (1PM Pacific)

Around 12AM Pacific, unless the continental US has 13 new time zones.

- derumi (del-me)
"Bobby Fischer? Man, that guy is crazy!" - Mike Tyson

This feels like Obama's first big stumble for me.  Then again, maybe it's a brilliant choice in terms of pulling in the votes he needs...it certainly seems to be coldly politically calculated, though.  Which, I suppose, brings me back to this being a stumble...because if I'm going to pick between two cold political calculators, maybe I'd rather go with McCain...who at least has proven himself to have some backbone and grace under pressure.  When looking for that in Obama - not so sure anymore...

And what was up with that whole text message debacle?

Did anybody think that would actually go as planned? I don't care how secretive the campaign is. When you have an army of reporters all clamoring to get their five seconds of fame by being the "first to know" they'd do anything to find out. Plus you figure you have to have at least a couple dozen party insiders who knew Obama's choice. All of these people have staffers and interns. All it takes is for one of these people (probably numbering hundreds when all is said and done) to decide they want to get a big chit with some reporter and they'll go and leak it.

Even if everybody is on Team Obama, in the end a large percentage are only looking out for themselves. I am shocked it stayed a secret this long.

... I'd say McCain selects someone who's not a US Senator to run with him.  I think the prospect of having all four candidates being Senators would overload circuits among an electorate which, frankly, doesn't hold members of Congress in high esteem.  That means that a ticket of McCain/Lieberman is off the table.  My top three picks are:

1. Tom Ridge

2. Mitt Romney and

3. Tim Pawlenty

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Does anybody seriously hold off on choosing a candidate until they make their VP choice known? Does it really matter? Our esteemed 32nd Vice President is esteemed for saying accepting the job was "the worst damn fool mistake I ever made" and declaring the office isn't worth a "warm bucket of spit" (or piss, depending on the source).

Until the collection of executive powers by the Chainsaw started this office was relatively powerless. If Obama promises to function as the Chief Executive and not subcontract out his leadership then does it really matter who he picks, as long as they are not wholly unsuitable?

Could it be that the rush to know who McCain and Obama will pick is simply a product of these 24 hour news cycles that need to fill the air with something? Couldn't the whole process be much simpler? Announce it via press release once the nomination has been secured, or horse trade the job in exchange for the delegates of a 3rd or 4th place finisher. Everybody wins (except the Telcos who made thousands off that text message barrage last night).

Personally, I'm not deciding on who gets my vote until each candidate announces who their Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks will be. You think I'm joking now, but how many more elections will it be until each candidate feels compelled to announce their cabinet slate before the election?

I like how the "proclivity for plagiarism" link goes to a 20-year-old article that is so vague as to the actual charges that it qualifies as a smear. The "plagiarism" in the speech was a quote from Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the British Labour Party, which he forgot to attribute in one speech out of several where he used it.

I'm embarrassed to have my name attached to this write up and officially renounce my membership in the Democratic party.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

What happened to Bill Richardson?  Here's a liberal Democrat with substantial foreign policy experience and political savvy who gets passed over for Joe Biden.  As I posted elsewhere, I like Joe Biden as my Senator -- I've voted for him in every election since he began running for political office.  But, really there just isn't that much that recommends him as a running mate for Obama over the rest of the pack.  Richardson was in the primary fight early on, along with Biden and Obama.  He showed much more national interest than Biden did.  When he withdrew he threw his support to Obama and, unlike Biden, never openly questioned whether Obama would really be up to the job.  Biden doesn't really bring any big state connections (other than his Pennsylvanian birthplace) to the table than Richardson does.

Richardson is also a popular state governor from a region of the country that Obama really could benefit from having a boost in November.  Plus, an added bonus here, Richardson is an Hispanic -- and that can't hurt in an electorate where that ethnic group is the next big thing.  Of course, perhaps his being an ethnic American finally hurt his chances.  Perhaps Obama (or his brain trust) figured that Obama's ethnic profile would be just fine and they were willing to go with that and they needed an obviously white bread name and face on the ticket to balance out things for the Democrat from Cook County.  Did Richardson ever come out and finally and irrevocably reject the idea of a run for Veep?  If he did I missed it.  Just wondering here -- both at the selection of Biden and the passing on Richardson.  

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Obama's finished.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

The immediate reaction of the Republican spokespeople to the choice of Biden was that Obama was admitting to the fact that he has insufficient experience and insufficient judgment to be President, by picking such an experienced running mate.  It's interesting how political minds work.  Of course, if Obama had picked as his running mate another person with relatively few years of experience in politics, the Republican response would have been to denounce the resulting team as being twice as bad as Obama was by himself, being composed of two inexperienced people.  You lose either way.  But logically, if it is true that Obama's main weakness is a relative lack of experience, then choosing a more experienced running mate would seem to be a very logical means of improving the Democratic ticket. Presumably, Biden will be a very convenient source of advice should Obama ever feel that he needs help.

Since I linked to Biden saying a bunch of bonehead things above, it's only fair to link to an example of Biden telling the truth.