Barack Obama's selection of Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden doesn't simply shore up his foreign policy credentials, as Steve Clemons notes. It may also setup a showdown over foreign policy in an Obama administration. Like George W. Bush, Obama has little foreign policy experience, though he has proven that he has the right instincts, vigorously opposing the Iraq War, even as a host of other Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, jumped onto the Bush war bandwagon.
But Biden has several decades of experience dealing with foreign leaders and a seasoned staff that he would bring with him to an Obama administration. It could be that vice-president Dick Cheney serves as his model. Biden might even be tempted to set up his own parallel foreign policy establishment, as did Cheney -- to the detriment of the Bush administration. Having witnessed the catastrophic consequences of Cheney's power-grab, however, Biden may well avoid going down that road. Nevertheless, Biden will clearly be a powerful figure in an Obama administration, focused on foreign policy. The coming months will show how smoothly Biden works with the other foreign policy figures in Obama's orbit, including former national security advisor Anthony Lake and former State Department official Susan Rice. Lake is outwardly genteel, but an experienced infighter who may be seeking to redeem his reputation from the hammering that the Clinton administration took early on over its failure to end the conflict in Bosnia. Biden, on the other hand, will be thirsting for the chance to put his stamp on foreign policy.
The conventional wisdom is that Obama made a safe choice with Biden. It's wrong. It was a bold one that will further test his ability to coordinate his campaign effectively--something he has done brilliantly so far.
This article is not comparing Biden's style to Cheney or Obama's values to Bush, but rather, it's showing that the Democrats can use a similar STRATEGIC MODEL for social change that Bush/Cheney used. And, you've got to admit, that model WORKED. As much as I can't stand Dubya, I've got to give him this...his administration has CHANGED things. Not the way I'd like them to be changed, of course, but things are CHANGED.
Now, it's Obama's turn to come in and change things for the better good.
As soon as I learned that Biden was the pick, I knew that Obama was 1,000% serious about CHANGING things. His change shows us that he's not just talk, but action. Picking Biden shows us that Obama thinks like this: Obama will be the visionary, leader, and decision maker, and Biden will the workhorse consultant who knows the detailed nitty-gritty of how the current system works. Biden will make Obama's vision happen.
This is a similar approach to the one that Bush/Cheney used. It's not a commentary about Obama's/Biden's values or ethics... It's just a commentary about one's strategy to move political institutions.
This article is not comparing Biden's style to Cheney or Obama's values to Bush, but rather, it's showing that the Democrats can use a similar STRATEGIC MODEL for social change that Bush/Cheney used. And, you've got to admit, that model WORKED. As much as I can't stand Dubya, I've got to give him this...his administration has CHANGED things. Not the way I'd like them to be changed, of course, but things are CHANGED.
So much for Robert Novak's cherished 'Do nothing Conservative Governance'.
Romney or Pawlently is McCain's Quayle or Agnew.
2 very big problems with this brilliant theory:
1.Biden is no Dick Cheney.
2.Obama is no Dubya.
And I say, thank God!
and he knows his own mind and what he will or won't put up with. I think that one reason he did not chose Hillary. He wasn't willing to be a proxy president while Bill muscled in and tried to take over. I think Obama did not want any power grabs or power struggles.
I am not a naive person but, Biden has shown himself to be man with a big heart who wants to do good things and help people. He is not a man who would amass power and glory for self. After all these years in the senate he is the poorest senator. That is because he did not cash in for his own glory.
I think he would do right by Obama and would work as a team rather then as a shadow government. he would respect Obama and would work for the common good.
He would use his foreign policy and experience to push diplomacy and a better world.
He also would work with Obama to build a strong country again that is for the good of the people and clean up the bush mess.
These two are the anti Bush and Cheney.
Uh, wrong. Just for STARTERS. Richard Holbrooke, Madeleine Albright and Zbigniew Brzezinski - and now JB. Not to mention the corporate nuts he IS beholden to.
Are we/YOU naive?
Believe this. The EMPIRE building will continue no matter who is elected. Period.
An empire in decline (underlined), such as the USA, is a VERY dangerous animal. They WILL strike out at anyone, at anytime for no reason other than ........... natural resources, $'s and/or desperation.
A guy who first entered the Senate when Nissan was still Datsun, when Bill Gates was in high school, when new "Lucy" episodes were still on weekly TV, and when the Apollo missions were still heading to the moon -- that guy represents "CHANGE".
(Gimme a break. The year was 1972!)
My God. In '72, Reagan was governor of California, and Ahh-nold was just starting to pump iron back in Austria. And most Americans had never heard of ... Jimmy Carter.
That's a long, damn time ago.
I'm an Obama backer ... but for pity's sake ... stop trying to sell Joe Biden as something new, fresh, different, and CHANGING. He's no more a change agent in 2008 than LBJ would be ...who, by the way, was still living back when Biden won his first Senate seat.
I pray this pick won't come back to hurt Obama.
A plausible explanation for a lot of Wall Street's activities, the mortgage mess and so forth. You are dead-on about tactics and the "game" that has digressed into a shallow neo-con drama exhibiting how ignorance and stubbornness begets isolation and disaster.
I agree with you here. We never can be to sure of one mans lust (or secret desire) for power. Biden seems safe right now, but so did Dick Cheyney. I still say the comparison is way off. I think-and hope- JB is more like Tom Hagen to use the Godfather analagy, but he needs to be Luca Brasi for the remainder of this elction "season:
Repugs can dictate arguments but they can't finish it!!!!!