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I'm Just Sayin': The Idiotic "Biden Undercuts Change" Argument
The most idiotic punditbabble we've heard in the wake of Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden -- advanced by the AP's Ron Fournier, NBC's David Gregory and others as if they were channeling John McCain's talking points -- is the notion that Biden undercuts Obama's message that it's time for a change.
Exhibit A, in this silly argument, is Biden's 35 years in the United States Senate. The simplistic formulation argues that because Biden is an old hand in Washington, he undermines Obama as a standard-bearer for change.
First of all, consider the absurdity of the suggestion that a brilliant, young, black president wouldn't represent an historic, transforming leap forward in American politics. On its face, this is nothing more than Rovian hyperspin.
Barack Obama personifies change -- no matter who his running-mate is.
But there's a further point (and thanks to Newsweek's Howard Fineman for picking up on it): That what Biden represents is a guy - perhaps uniquely qualified - to implement the change that Obama represents.
With his knowledge of the ways of Washington, his vast experience in the Senate, his insider savvy, Biden brings to the Democratic ticket a glimmer of hope that all the things Obama wants to accomplish - from foreign affairs and health care to economic and tax policy - might actually get done in the next administration.
McCain's people desperately did not want Obama to pick Biden for precisely this reason, along with the fact that Biden actually knows McCain, he's an Irish Catholic from Scranton, he's a family man who can rub elbows in union halls and he's a terrific debater and attack surrogate.
Without someone like Biden on the ticket - with a governor perhaps or a less effective senator - Obama risked looking like a dreamer, not a doer. But with Biden at his side, the Democratic ticket suddenly can offer itself as a pragmatic, can-do engine for change.
Biden doesn't detract from the message of change: he drives it home.
Follow Phil Trounstine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ptrounstine
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Biden is change because his last name is Biden, not Clinton.
Do you ever post anything that does not include Clinton? Get a freak'n life!
Biden is to Obama as Cheney is to Bush. Both are insiders who do/will pull the President's strings.
Blarg- not an apt analogy by a long shot.
You can't compare Obama to Bush the malleable, and Biden is not Cheney the malevolent.
GBO, Bushie went for the CIC gig for many reasons but HIS ability was never THERE to begin with and besides, being a true slacker, was promised that OTHERS would tend to the detail, he was but to smile and reeive the GLORIFICATIONARIES ...Get a reality check, NO COMPARISON as OBAMA ACTUALL HAS EXPERTISE AND IS CAPABLE OF THINKING as well !!! Bush was a fraud the whole distance, propped up all the way along (and sorry RR fans, so was ROnnie, he was great at being front man, but no intellect, but a nice guy sort but others tended the details then as well !!! )
Biden is the 2nd poorest Senator in Congress. Not a shill for Halliburton, big Oil and the corporatist agenda.
On the otherhand Obama has been a free thinker, emphasis on the thinking part, unlike Mr. Bush who is so bad he can't tell when he is lying.
Possibly the dumbest analogy I've seen on this site.
I agree wholeheartedly with your post - vision is nothing without implementation. But, didn't Sen. Clinton advance this same theory with respect to the relationship of LBJ to Dr. King? And, didn't she get lambasted for racism for this comment? I believe the backlash was something along the lines of - how dare she diminish the accomplishments of Dr. King by saying that LBJ had an important part in that success. Sooner or later the Obama supporters are going to just have to admit that they viscerally just hate this woman with no particular reason at all. Maybe when they confront that hatred for what it is, they can work through it and then, maybe, the Democratic Party will be able to achieve unity.
Chill Phil...Give him SOME SLACK. It has to be 100 per cent better than what we have..
You should try reading more than just the headlines before you comment. That way you won't look so dumb.
"Slack"? For what?
The point he's making is a perfect one--that Obama is a visionary, a Democratic leader who MOST DEFINITELY will be a change from the Republicans (and who is also a visual symbol of a changing America because of his race)....AND....
...that in choosing Biden--someone who knows the ins and outs of getting bills through Congress, someone who doesn't take any b.s.--Obama is showing himself as not a "pie-in-the-sky" dreamer, but as a DOER (which, of course, his life and his campaign to date also reaffirm).
I agree completely. Biden is a great symbol of "roll up your sleeves and get it done" leadership. In choosing him, Obama shows his practicality and his excellent judgment.
He also shows his security (that's right, MSM. S-e-c-u-r-i-t-y.) He's not afraid of being overshadowed or upstaged by an older, and still-ambitious, senator who's been around in government a long time.
I have long wanted Clark as VP. But I have to admit, Biden's a much better choice.
Obama / Biden '08
Interesting that people do not seem to understand that "change" is partly a code word for the good old pro labor, pro choice, hand up, public works, pro environment government that Democrats have always championed. The "New Deal" has already been used. And the "Old Deal" is somehow less compelling.
The other half of the "change" message seems lost on the left as well. That part is compromise versus political trench warfare. And Biden brings enough high explosives with him to blow up the trenchworks of the opposition if that is what it takes to get things moving.
Therefore Joe Biden is the perfect choice for doing what needs to be done in every way. I am likening it to JFK's choice of LBJ. LBJ could hornswoggle, bully, extort or sweet talk just about anything through any resistance. Both men had political acumen, but played different roles. And you can't get anything done without political skill.
I hadn't thought of the JFK/LBJ comparison. Good point.
'Biden brings to the Democratic ticket a glimmer of hope that all the things Obama wants to accomplish might actually get done in the next administration....'
and a bucket of suspicion that the things Obama wants to accomplish are not the things he so far promised to accomplish.
And what is the basis of your suspicion? Your personal paranoia is not really relevent to the conversation.
Agreed.
My brother was president of a major American university for a number of years. Prior to that, he was provost. There the provost could hire and fire anybody while the president could do that with only one person, the provost. The result was that the president was the visionary who lead the university in new directions while the provost was the "can do" person who helped make sure these visions were implemented.
Same thing with Obama and Biden. Obama has the vision, while Biden can help make sure it happens.
I could not have agreed with your more!!!!!!
Regardless of who is elected, there will be change.
Absolutely. And Biden said he thought McCain would make a good president.
They know Biden doesn't detract from Obama's message of change. They know perfectly well that Biden strengthens the ticket. And WE know that if Obama had picked someone less experienced the pundits would been on him for that. Onward.
Biden is a good pick for VP.
One of the reasons I voted for Bush was because Cheney was VP.
how's that working for you?
The fact that you tout Cheney as your choice for voting for Bush is actually kind of scary. Suffice to say that anyone who looked up Cheney's neocon right-wing nut credentials as well as his contributions to their cause who have shied away from this choice unless they were voting blindly.
Wow, I wouldn't admit that! Does not give you much credit.......sorry!
Obama touted change and has turned into Bush lite.
Bush needed an insider who knew Washington and chose Cheney. A tough talking insider who took no quarter and gave none. And set a standard for an activist VP that some may say was a bad standard to set.
Barack has gone the way of Bush. Biden is a nice guy with wit and charm and a 35 year history in DC. Unlike Hillary he has NEVER been chosen by the democrats, or republicans, on a national stage. He has a mouth on him [like Cheney] and balances a quiet, presidential candidate [like Bush].
So much for change.
Biden is so far away from Cheney. Only Rovian republican would make
that arguement.
Who cares? The real problem in the Bush administration is Bush, not Cheney. Cheney's not doing anything that Bush isn't letting him do, and Bush is letting him do it because he's both weak and lazy. Obama is neither.
Patent nonsense from start to finish. If you think Obama is Bush lite you're living in an alternative universe. Biden being a member of the U.S. Senate is not a being on the national stage? The only office Hillary has been elected to is the same one Biden has held for way longer than her. No one chose her to run for president. She did that herself. If Democrats could have chosen who ran it's obvious by how it turend out that it wouldn't have been her.
"No one chose her to run for president."
Not on point. How many voted for Hillary and how many voted for Old Joe?
"..a nice guy with wit and charm..."
Yes, that will already be a big change.
Add in "principles" and "integrity" and I'd say there's no similarity between Obama-Biden and Bush-Cheney at all.
Yeah, that's just what the russians respect. Wit and charm. Guess that's why BO got someone with some juice. If he wins, it won't be the President.
Your comments and arguments make sense to me. However, politics has to deal with an electorate with whom intelligence, rationality and common sense seem not to be a prerequisite.
But, at least, one would hope that this electorate can count. The count that undercuts the argument the Republicans seem to be getting so much help from the biased, liberal, left media (the likes of David Gregory and David Shuster on MSNBC being pointed examples of misplaced labeling) is that John McCain has been elected to the Congress of the United States exactly the same number of times that Joe Biden has, namely, six. The difference is that McCain has two terms in the House while Biden has all his terms in the Senate.
So, now, will the Republicans hype or hide that fact? Can Democrats really count? Am I going to pull the rest of my hair out? Am I going to turn off my TV and my computer and move to Bora Bora? (golf and a loving wife keep me here)
O's supporters are now doing yet another u-turn in thinking. He couldn't consider Hill because he is all about change. Now, he picks Biden.
I agree with John Bachelor and others that Russia's invasion just changed the game plan for O. His nuanced comments hit like a lead balloon. And he was sinking fast. Biden may stop the bleeding.
But I doubt it.
He didn't pick Hillary for several reasons, probably. All of which he hasn't disclosed to us, so anything more than that is pure speculation on your part.
Care to speculate where Hillary would be in the polling versus McCain right now?
Why not ask Hillary why she told him not to vet her and then we can move forward. Please vote for Mccain. I hate people that hold grudges but fail to see their faults and their reasons for failures, everything is Obama's fault or the DNC fault, according to you Hillary ran a flawless campaign, completely above board and they robbed her.
vote Mccain and then when he promptly continue the same things that you complained about for eight years maybe then the sky will open and a light will come down and you will realize that you should have voted your interests instead of your spiteful heart.
No, he couldn't choose Hill because she wouldn't/couldn't be VETTED (Clinton finances, always problematic).
Please try to keep up.
The percentage of time that the "news" spends theorycrafting about Obama's shortcomings is outrageous. He's arrogant. He's too skinny. My favorite - he's too articulate. It is the same theorycrafting that comes up with nonsense like Biden "undercuts the message of change". The MSM is determined to make this race close, completely and utterly failing to inform the public and improve the debate at the public square.
That brings back memories of "All Gore is too smart for Americans".
Just look at GWB and the wreck his stupidity has left our country in!
not 'articulate', 'verbose.' He can be both, actually, but often comes across as the later.
Maybe to the comprehension challenged like you.
...."Without someone like Biden on the ticket - with a governor perhaps or a less effective senator - Obama risked looking like a dreamer, not a doer. But with Biden at his side, the Democratic ticket suddenly can offer itself as a pragmatic, can-do engine for change.
Biden doesn't detract from the message of change: he drives it home."
------
You've hit the nail on the proverbial head. Biden is the perfect choice for Obama.
Yes, and he may drive it home for another 35 years with the same success.
I am so happy; Obama's first decision.... in selecting Biden... was such a great move. We will win in November, save martial law or another voting maching scandal. Things will change... and as the Nebraska Senator said... Biden is a good choice for Obama and a good choice for America!
Obama-Biden '08
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