My initial thought upon hearing of the selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s running mate was, “That’s a good choice.”
Sen. Biden brings a wealth of experience, both on foreign policy and domestic issues, but more than that, he’s personable. As much as I like Barack Obama, one of his shortcomings as a candidate seems to be his inability to connect with voters in more intimate settings like town hall meetings, and that personability is exactly what Joe Biden brings to the Democratic ticket. Additionally, I think Sen. Biden’s going to prove to be an effective “attack dog” for the Democratic ticket, something we didn’t see in the 2004 election with John “Mr. Nice Guy” Edwards. In fact, Biden took a few jabs at John McCain yesterday:
“Your kitchen table is like mine, you sit there at night after you put the kids to bed and you talk about what you need. That’s not a worry John McCain has to worry about. He’ll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.”
Now sure, conservatives will no doubt attack the selection of Biden as Obama’s running mate; they’ll run footage of Biden criticizing Obama – indeed, they already have – but what Obama’s choice of Biden proves is that he doesn’t want to surround himself with “yes men.” And sure, conservatives will try and attack Obama for running a campaign of change while choosing a running mate who’s the consummate Washington insider, but they can’t have it both ways. This is the hypocrisy of so many on the right…on the one hand some conservatives attack Obama for being inexperienced, yet when he chooses a running mate to balance out his relative inexperience, he gets attacked for it.
It’s hypocrisy, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Mike Plaisted has more on Biden’s selection.
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