Barack Obama's Best Choice for VP: Joe Biden

A few weeks ago, with Pennsylvania Primary Fever, I suggested that Barack Obama choose Ed Rendell as his running mate. My logic was that Obama should choose someone from the Hillary camp to bring the warring factions together. I like Ed Rendell; but the fighting between the Obama and Clinton camps is already drawing to an end, and the party is quickly uniting behind Senator Obama.

Some thought the reconciliation would not occur until the Democratic Convention, at the earliest. But the party leaders and many supporters of Senator Clinton's are already racing toward the Obama camp, and there appears to be no need for a dramatic move by Obama to unite his team with the Clinton folks.

Senator Obama will have a united party behind him, regardless of whether he chooses one of his Hillary's supporters. So, whom then should he choose as his running mate? Does he go with geography (Dukakis chose Bentsen hoping to win Texas), does he add to the "Change" message (Clinton picked Gore to contrast their youth and newness with George H.W. Bush), or does he pick the person who would best help him navigate Congress and the world stage, in order to help him accomplish his enormous goals?

Let me give away my choice right now: Obama should choose Joe Biden as his running mate. I say this not because I was Senator Biden's speechwriter, but because Senator Biden would be the best vice president for a President Obama.

Why?

He's accomplished: If the party's nominee was chosen on the basis of resume, Joe Biden would have been promoted to the presidency. His long career is filled with indelible achievements. He dragged the Senate into the modern era with his landmark Violence Against Women Act; he led the charge to stop genocide in Bosnia; he made our country safer with his program that put 100,000 more cops on the beat.

He's well-rounded: He has led the Senate Committees on the Judiciary and Foreign Relations.

He's no-nonsense. He calls bullshit when it's bullshit, as he did last week when the president made his ill-advised and poorly received remarks in Israel. He is unafraid; this is a man who suffered two brain aneurysms and suffered the unspeakable tragedy of his wife and child's death in a car accident.

He is a man of the people: Senator Biden is not wealthy, never has been. He is a working man. He takes the train to work every morning, and then he takes it home again every night. He relates to the people because he's one of them, and when you watch him campaign, you can see that the people relate to him. His wife, Jill, is a teacher. He has an extremely close-knit family.

He understands the world we live in today: he knows Iraq as well as, if not better, than any political figure in the United States. He's traveled there several times. He has a plan for victory and a plan to bring out troops home safely.

His first priority is our veterans: You will never -- never -- see our returning troops treated as miserably as they have been under Bush-Cheney if Biden is VP. I believe he'd personally clean up Walter Reed if he had to, and he'd relish the opportunity to expand the GI Bill so that our veterans can get a college education.

He is probably the second best speaker in the Senate: second to Senator Obama. Between the two of these guys, we'd be a long way from the oratorical horrors of the Bush-Cheney years.

Now, you may look at this and say, that's all well and good, but Joe Biden -- can he help Obama win?

I'm glad you asked, because the answer is a resounding "yes." Biden would be a huge asset with the white working class voter, a vote which went overwhelmingly Republican in 2004. He is also an outstanding debater, as evidenced by the Democratic Party primary debates. Remember his line about Rudy Giuliani -- "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence. A noun, a verb, and 9/11." He would shred the Republican VP choice. His experience will go a long way toward making people comfortable with Senator Obama's youth.

There are excellent candidates for Senator Obama to consider for VP. I've seen articles and watched TV personalities talk about Jim Webb, Ted Strickland, Wesley Clark, Chuck Hagel, Mike Bloomberg, Bill Richardson and Kathleen Sebalius. There are pluses and minuses to all of them.

But if Senator Obama wants to pick the best person to help him get his agenda through the Congress; if he wants to pick the person who is not afraid to take on the Republican attack machine; if he wants to pick the person who has the background that shows he can do the job, then he should pick Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

Comments

[fredakel]

Great Choice!!! White 66 year male from SC & FL. Have voted for Bush 1, Clinton Twice, Bush 2 once. 100% behind Obama, unless Hillary is VP. Then I vote McCain PERIOD.

[Canaris]

Biden has been my choice for President for the last two elections. I think he would make an outstanding VP, and a great President if, God forbid, that became necessary. I have long said that he is one of the smartest people in Washington. Not only do I love the fact that he called "bull****" when that was the entirely appropriate response to Chimpy and his transparent attack on Sen. Obama from the floor of the Knesset, but I also loved his appearance on televsion a couple of weeks back when he put the Republicans on notice that the Democrats aren't ceding national security this time around; "we look forward to having that debate, we RELISH that debate". Hear hear! It did my heart good to finally hear a Democrat say that.

Obama/Biden '08

[abigail1]

I have always been fond of Joe Biden, I also find it interesting that after each debate many people said that they wish they heard more about him.
He does tend to put his foot in his mouth though, and he comes from a tiny state that Democrats will win no matter what. But maybe he'll help in Virginia an PA. Who knows.
I always thought he'd be a great Secretary of State.

[OverIt]

I agree that Biden has all of those qualities but I disagree that he should be the VP choice. Biden for Secretary of State. Webb for Secretary of Defense. Sebellius, Bayh or Edwards for VP.

[ADMarshall]

No. Obama & Ron Paul in November. :D Then let them bring in whoever they need.

[FlowerGirl]

Sorry, but no way we need Biden.. He has been decidedly of the DLC persuasion, and frankly, his "foreign policy expertese" stemsw from his constant mouthing of the Israeli line. For example: "his" plan to break Iraq into three pieces was first proposed in Israel at the time they made their first invasion of Lebanon (turning that once prosperous, progressive, democratic nation into the mess that it is now -- for purposes of hegemony. The plan stated by Zeev Schiff was for the US to do the job for Israel in Iraq, and break that countyry into at least three pieces. Check Noam Chomsky's "Fateful Triangle" for further such.

[YankeeCanuck]

Look a little deeper.There's no particular DLC connection and his foreign policy expertise stems from his extensive experience in the middle east -- not just in Israel. Biden's political plan for Iraq was decidedly NOT partition into three pieces if you read it.
Biden has spent plenty of time in Arabic-speaking countries, has met with sheiks and tribal leaders-- and world leaders for that matter. They know and trust him. He does defend the right of Israel to exist. But it's pretty hard to argue against that.
Biden has also been an eloquent voice against genocide in Iraq, Sudan, the Balkans.
Domestically, he authored the Domestic Violence Act years ago and spearheaded its passage.He has no patience for mysogyny.
He is in Washington, but not an insider-- commutes every day he possibly can (by train) to Delaware and his family.

That's for starters.

[cacatua]

If you check back to the creation of Iraq, after WW1, you will find that what became Iraq was originally three Ottoman villayets: Mosul, Baghdad, and Basrah. Mosul was Kurdish, Baghdad was Sunni, and Basrah was Shiite. Churchill wanted the Kurds to have their own state, as a buffer between the Turks and Arabs, but Gertrude Bell, who had a great influence on the creation of Iraq, wanted the Sunnis of Mosul to help Baghdad to balance out the large population of Shiites.

Federalism was proposed at that time by Clayton of the Arab Bureau, but Bell wanted to install Sherif Feisal ibn Hussein, who led the Arab Revolt with Lawrence as a King of Iraq because she thought his dynamic personality would hold the three provinces together. Bell got her way.

Joe Biden's idea for federalism in Iraq is sound and grounded in the history of the place.

[disgusted48]

Obama needs a southerner on the ticket that can actually win a southern state or two. Biden is from a tiny state. It's about the numbers. The alternate is that Obama will be forced to put Clinton on the ticket to get the mean ole lady vote.
Obama/Webb 2008

[KGinSanFrancisco]

Joe Biden is a great man, very knowledgeable in foreign affairs and very respected in the Senate, he is my first choice for VP for Obama.
Obama/Biden 2008

[jrterrier]

oh ,my god, the losing wing of the dem party is rearing its ugly face again. biden is a decent, perhaps better than average senator. but he's tried and lost badly the two times he tried for a national bid.

[YankeeCanuck]

He and Dodd lost to money and celebrity in Iowa. The American people did not have the opportunity to get to know them. Both are exceptional politicians and Senators. Perhaps not glamorous, nor able to attract large donors because they will not be beholden to any interest groups.

[Thorn]

Sure, Biden is a clever guy. Nice smile. But do you really want that Neil Kinnock baggage? I don't care, personally. Still, that's one hell of a heavy satchel to carry into a presidential campaign, and I suspect you don't remember it.

[cacatua]

Let's get the Kinnock Baggage out of the way. Joe Biden neglected to credit Kinnock with the authorship of a speech that He (Biden) had used a number of times before, and always credited Kinnock. His biggest mistake was that when an aide told him of his omission later, he didn't get the media people back together and make sure that he credited Kinnock. Instead he thought there were journalists there who were aware that he had done so in the past.

Unfortunately there was also a Dukakis operative, named John Sasso there who had taped Joe's speech and knew that he hadn't credited Kinnock this time. So he gleefully made sure that copies of the tape were sent where they would do the most damage.

Later Dukakis fired Sasso and apologized to Biden, but damages have a way of showing up on the front page as headlines, while apologies are stuck in the back somewhere, in small print.

Joe's distraction at the time was that, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he had just had Bork's nomination to the Supreme court dropped into his lap, and between considering whether to try to repair his good name and continue the presidential campaign, or to work to keep Bork off of the Supreme Court, he thought his energy was better spent on Bork.

But nobody ever tells this whole story. They just call Joe Biden a plagiarist and keep the old slander going.

My choice: Biden/Obama

[YankeeCanuck]

Thanks for fleshing it out, cacatua. Sound reasoning, and not repetition of spurious soundbites, is what will help us get real leadership.

[YankeeCanuck]

Well, if a smear campaign based on a slip damns someone forever you have a point. He quoted Kinnock in many successive speeches and on one left off the attribution-- an aide from a competing campaign would not let go until it got blown out of proportion. That aide was fired (later re-hired). So it goes in politics.
But if that's all they have on him it's pathetically minuscule. Baggage?
Heck, it's not even a disco bag.

Now on the substance side of things, Biden is a professor of constitutional law, an expert in foreign policy, has some key Republicans willing to work with him. (Yes, some of them are human beings).
He's eloquent, sometimes puts his foot in his mouth-- but he has prodigious knowledge about domeswtic and foreign policies, not unlike his friend Chris Dodd. Both experienced and ethical politicians-- a rare breed.

[Thorn]

Claiming he was the first in his family to go to college is a "slip" in your book? (And it was more than once.) Then there's absolutely no convincing you. Jesus, he was even using Kinnock's inflection in those speeches. I'd be far more persuaded if you argued that it was a side-effect of the brain tumor.

[caywen]

Biden would be... a wise choice. An exceptional choice.

I think the Repub VP candidate would wet his pants trying to debate Joe, especially on foreign policy. He'd look Joe in the eye and see a guy who lost his family, confronted death, and battled in the Senate for 35 years.

And, he'd provide Obama's vision with a different and complementary voice.

[Quaoar]

Sebellius or Richardson.

[standard]

Good thinking.

[OSUMercutio]

I agree that Biden is a great choice. However, I think it would also be nice to have someone strong like Biden as senate majority leader b/c Harry Reid has been a disaster.

[TommyMcCarthy]

Biden was easily my early first choice for president, so obviously I think he'd be great as VP.

All nominees face the same dilemma regarding their choice for the "two-spot".

What's needed is
A:)Help winning the general ............bringing in a big swing state or a particular key group of voters. Biden doesn't help that much here.

B:) Help GOVERNING .......... shepherding legislation through Congress. Credibility with foriegn entities. Ability to hardball on the President's behalf.....Not to mention the obvious: Ablility to step up and be President in the event of the unthinkable.
Biden is absolutely STELLAR on all fronts here.


Of course, there is one person (only one) who is as close as one can get to having proven experience as VP without having actually held the office, .....with great credibility overseas,...... NO hesitancy when it comes time to hardball (as Obama knows PERSONALLY)...........
and whose presence on the ticket nearly GUARANTEES a Nov. victory,...quite likely of LANDSLIDE proportions.....

I hope (assume) Obama and advisers do not share the oft-stated, and DANGEROUSLY arrogant view that he needs no help defeating McCain in November.

Sure, McCain represents a "weakened, diminished, and discredited Republican party" (I'll NEVER tire of GLEEFULLY uttering that!) McCain himselfis very electable.

The VP pick will be Obama's first (and hopefully not last) desicion as what's-his-name so eloquently put it "DECIDER".

Only Barack knows if he's willing to excersise the "win/win" option:....with respect to Joe
that's obviously: Hillary Clinton......................................................tm

[23000Days]

My money's on Kathleen Sebelius: Woman, Governor, squeaky-clean Democrat, governs a red state, well educated, excellent speaker, education and environment activist, great with the states budget. She's got all the good stuff!

[FLA1]

he is a good choice. Also, he was born in Scranton, PA, I believe, which might also be helpful with the midwest vote that Obama so desperately needs.