I've been telling people the past few days that I thought Joe Biden would ultimately be Obama's pick for his running mate. I've held off telling people my opinion about it until I was sure that he would be the actual pick- but now that it is official...
My intial thoughts are that Biden is much more useful to an Obama presidency if he wins the election than during the actual campaign. Biden has several very excellent strengths which will make him a great vice president, his 35 years of experience in government, his formidable knowledge on issues of foreign policy, his willingness to bear his teeth when needed, his ability to debate, and his different outlook on certain issues which will be an asset to the future adminstration. Unfortunately, only two of those things matter during the campaign. Biden also comes with a few weaknesses; he is the antithesis of a "change agent" muting Obama's most powerful message, he comes from a small state which was dyed blue anyway, he does not have any executive experience either, and he can be a bit wonkish and long-winded on the stump. And none of those are his most damning weakness...
The worst thing Joe Biden brings to the campaign are his words in a 2007 ABC interview in which he says that Obama is not ready to be president and that the presidency does not lend itself to on the job training. He also went out of his way to praise John McCain. The McCain campaign already has come out with ads using Joe Biden's own words, which are pretty damning.
That being said, one thing that I've heard is that all of this could ultimately play into a very good strategic move by Obama. For instance, after his campaign hammered John McCain on forgetting the number of houses he has, McCain snapped back about the whole Tony Rezko thing. Now that Rezko is out, it's old news and won't have the ability to play as well in October. Similarly, by announcing Joe Biden as his running mate, the campaign knew that McCain's people would not be able to resist coming out with Biden's 2007 interview decrying Obama's lack of experience now in order to score some more points. If Biden does the right thing (which of course he will) and persuades the country that in the 9-10 months since the interview Obama has shown him that he does have the ability to lead the country, that the energy around the country among young people is "Kennedy-esque" while at the same time repudiating his previous statements about John McCain (along the lines of, I liked McCain, but he has made it clear that he will continue the failed policies of George W. Bush) then everything should blow over quite nicely before October. Hopefully that is part of their plan.
Ultimately, I think that Biden would have made a much better cabinet member, Secretary of State so he could concentrate on foreign policy, which is by far his best area. I do not agree with some of his policy, although his thoughts on Iraqi partition are intriguing. I thought Tim Kaine would have been a better choice, strictly from a political standpoint. He's still a white male, he is young and much more in line with Obama's message, he has executive experience having been the governor of Virginia, he puts Virginia even more into play at the very least diverting funds from other states, and best of all he's never said anything bad about Obama. Biden's fame from running in the primaries definitely adds to his ability to help Obama during the campaign but there is still going to be some battling over his words. I guess it all depends on the way you look at a running mate, either as someone who adds votes that were not in play before or someone who will help your administration be a better one. From the latter perspective Joe Biden is a great pick, the important thing right now though is whether or not we even get to that point. Hopefully we will!
(I'm excited to say that beginning in October through election day I will be campaigning for Obama in Missouri!)
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