The neophyte and the plagiarist, or Obama makes his choice
Should I be nervous? Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate. Obama is not stupid, neither are his handlers. So why Joe Biden, one of only two US Senators (along with Al “Mr. Green” Gore) to achieve the distinction of an entry on the “Famous Plagiarists” web site? Frankly, when Biden’s name surfaced as a possible candidate for the job, I thought: “Now that would be good! But Obama is too canny to pick a discredited non-entity like Biden. Sure, he needs to distract voters from his ostentatious inexperience, but you don’t do that by picking someone whose efforts to appear statesmanlike diffuse an embarrassing mustiness masquerading as competence.”
So what’s going on? Did Hillary Clinton’s people surreptitiously shill for Biden? The New York Times this morning tells us that in making this choice, Obama is “turning to a leading authority on foreign policy and a longtime Washington hand.” The bit about Biden’s being a longtime Washington hack, er, “hand” is certainly correct–but wasn’t Obama campaigning for “Change”? Wasn’t he transcending race, politics-as-usual, the whole “longtime-Washington-hand-hack-hokum” routine? Maybe that was yesterday. But what about the description of him as a “leading authority on foreign policy”? Well, he has been pretty good on the war in Iraq, consistently taking positions that are at odds with those of Obama. Biden, for example, voted for the war in 2002. Obama was still in grade school then–or was he college already?–so he could not vote, but he has always been a vociferous critic of the war. So the ticket will have a built-in contradiction on one of the most important issues facing the country. That’s not so unusual, and after the success of The Surge in Iraq, I suspect that everyone is going to be talking less about that conflict.
But what troubles me is the inscrutability of Obama’s choice. Why Biden? As far as I know, Joe Biden, unlike Tony Rezko, has not helped Obama buy any houses in return for political favors. Biden is not old enough to have fought alongside Obama’s uncle in Patton’s army when it liberated Auschwitz (what, it was the Soviets, not Patton, who liberated Auschwitz? No matter). And Biden is not, as far as I know, an unrepentant terrorist like Bill “Weatherman” Ayres or an America-hating rabble-rousing preacher like Jeremiah “Goddamn America” Wright. Maybe Obama believes that Biden, an ordinary-looking white man who, if you are Obama, anyway, you might say looks like all the faces on the dollar bill, will help win votes from Catholics, women, blue-collar voters, middle class men, veterans, people serving in the military, etc. But I doubt it. Of all the likely candidates Obama could have chosen, Biden seems to me to be the most lacklustre. Perhaps he is supposed to bring “experience” to the Obama campaign. I suspect, though, that those who remember who Joe Biden is will chiefly recall Michael Dukakis’s 1988 video attacking Biden for plagiarism. Sure, that’s old news now. But then so is Joe Biden. Change? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Epigrams on Hope and Change
The theme:
“Let he who is without sin…,” preachers are wont to say,
But Obama, though as holy, must’ve missed that day.
Change:
All will change, by the Obamas we’re told,
Is nothing then right? Can I be so bold,
To suggest (in mind that Countrywide loan)
That change, like charity, begins at home.
Hope:
A new era upon us, is that so?
But from all campaigning one thing we know,
A plain maxim, an old superstition:
Political hope is political ambition.
Obama chose Biden. Aside from the fact that it is a weird kind of political nonsense for a single person to “choose” who the country “elects” for vice-president, one might argue that Obama wants to prove he is not racist. See the proof. He chose a typical white person.
Now, don’t be fooled by this. If elected, Obama will proceed to fill the positions in his administration with typical “black liberationists” who think like he thinks. Obama thinks according to his past “actions”, not according to his present words.
Funny you should bring up Dukakis. The Obama/Biden pair remind me of Dukakis/Bensen. The wussy metrosexual inexperienced liberal and the gray loudmouthed beltway insider. The only difference being that Biden won’t deliver any electoral votes that otherwise wouldn’t have gone to Obama.
I predict that this election will be similar to 1988. It’s always been Obama’s to lose, and he’s doing a fine job of it.
I wonder if Hillary is even now speaking to her flying monkeys. She knows the Denver convention is going to nominate a loser, unless she does something spectacular. It could still happen.
What you don’t get is that Obama is preparing to BE president, not selecting a VP candidate because he hopes to swing one state his way, or send the appropriate message to please the hack pundits such as you. Biden, for all his flaws, could step in and become president at a moment’s notice. The American people are electing a president, and that is what Obama is campaigning for. Biden is Obama’s selection for the man to step in and take over should he become incapacitated. You pathetic minor-league pundit hacks may not be happy about it, but Obama is creating a solid administration, not a focus-group inspired candidacy.
Sherlock: Why antagonize blacks now? Hillary can wait four years.
Joe Biden is described as a decent man with foreign policy expertise who has been serving in the US Senate since he was 29. Seventeen years older than Obama, Senator Biden looks like a father figure.
Is this what links Obama to Marxist teachers, an odd preacher, an unrepentant US capitol bomber with a trust fund, non-reformist Chicago politicians and now Joe Biden? That they are all old enough to be his father? What else connects these disparate individuals? Is Obama simply on a long and extensive search for guidance and protection from older men because, charming as he appears to be, he doesn’t feel grown up?
And certainly Senator Obama’s policies remain those of a college student.
Biden, for all his flaws, could step in and become president at a moment’s notice.
I guess that 0.5% of the Iowa vote Biden got was the “creme de le creme” of the supersmart Democrats realizing Biden’s hidden genius.
Biden’s selection is so off-message that one can only surmise Obama didn’t have a teleprompter available to consult in making his VP choice. “Uh, uh, uh, Biden.”
Fess up, was that a parody post?
I can hardly wait for Red Blooded’s roster of the rest of the “solid administration.” Wes Clark? Janet Reno?
Mike Espy? Jocelyn Elders? Tom Daschle? Keith Olberman?
It’s all going to focus on blue collar creds if BO has his way. McCain needs to keep pushing that Biden’s greatest area of expertise has been foreign policy and that BO has consistently opposed Biden’s positions. Who will be in charge?
Let’s face it. There is no pick Obama could have made that would have won praise from the other side. The only thing that would win praise from there is if he dropped out of the race altogether. But he is not going to do that, so you all (the other side) will be criticizing his every move for at least the next 4 1/2 years. As to the other members of a solid administration, time will tell, but they could hardly be worse than the group of non-entities they’ll be replacing. In any case, people vote for the name at the top of the ticket. And that’s what you’re worried about.
Every time I check this site I feel confirmed in my opinion that “conservative intellectual” is an oxymoron. What a hack.
Greetings:
Joe Biden = Assassination Insurance.
Horse latitude, or tropical calm, or Doldrums: tropical ocean latitude of deadly calm/no wind which traps sail-ships for days or weeks as they wait for enough wind to move them away; colloquial, stagnation.
The Opossum has been languishing for quite a while in this dreadful atmospheric, chief reason being captain Soetoro who simply cannot achieve critical mass. Hype-ing, bragging, ratiocinating and ceaselessly repositioning this election’s puzzle elements simply won’t do it – Soetoro is radioactive and no other VP pick than Hillary can help him anymore. From Phil Donahue to Stormin’ Norman to, as it weirdly happened, Joe Biden, no one can move the Oppossum from the mid 40-s where he’s been for weeks. A few days of warm draft, Biden will go through some schticks then we’ll return to the horse latitude. The liberals have already posited the post-election excuse for their superficiality: “Racism is the Only Reason McCain Might Win” – Jacob Weisberg, Slate/ 08/24/08
The Cheney to Obama’s Bush. Kind of.
Strange that Roger thinks that Obama needs Biden to get support from the military. Roger’s measure of true political support is the proportion of money donated,
http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/07/25/surprises-never-cease-department-media-bias-101/
On that measure, Roger’s preferred measure, the military, along with the rest of America is already behind Obama.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080814/military_donations.html
mtraven wrote: “Every time I check this site I feel confirmed in my opinion that “conservative intellectual” is an oxymoron. What a hack.”
And every time I see a comment like that one, I feel confirmed in my opinion that lefists have nothing to offer but bile and arrogance. Notice that mtraven doesn’t even attempt to refute anything that Roger has written. That would require facts and logic. No, he or she bypasses rational debate entirely and skips right to the name-calling.
Not very impressive.
Red Blooded American wrote: “There is no pick Obama could have made that would have won praise from the other side.”
That’s obvious. At this stage, an election is not about trying to persuade voters who are solidly opposed to you to switch sides — that’s impossible. No, it’s about persuading the undecided voters. The candidate who captures the most votes from the fence-sitters will win.
It’s not clear to how Obama’s selection of Biden helps him do that.
Red Blooded American wrote: “What you don’t get is that Obama is preparing to BE president . . .”
Actually, we do get that. But before Obama can BE president, he has to be ELECTED president. His European pre-victory tour suggested that he thinks he has already won. And now you tell us he’s getting ready to start work. Isn’t that just a little bit presumptuous and arrogant?
Obama may think he’s entitled to the presidency and that the election is just a formality, but he’s mistaken.
Self-hating boomer wrote: “I predict that this election will be similar to 1988. It’s always been Obama’s to lose, and he’s doing a fine job of it.”
“Always”? Hardly. This election was originally Hillary’s to lose, and she did it brilliantly. But Obama is not going to let Hillary outdo him in that area.
“preparing to BE president . . .”
Yes, he is preparing to be President. Mr. Obama has been elevated to higher and higher positions in life but has rarely bothered to show up for work, choosing to spend his time promoting himself and angling for something better (I wish I could get away with that). That’s why he has no body of work to reference. If he is elected, just what will he spend his time preparing to be?
Pat: the selection of Biden helps specifically to sway the fence-sitters, in that it shows his willingness to be pragmatic as opposed to doctrinaire. This is exactly what someone who is undecided at this point would want to see, I should think. And as far as being ELECTED to BE president goes, Obama is demonstrably better than McCain in inspiring people…and that is a large part of what it takes to win elections. In any case, even if McCain does win, I’ll feel a lot better with him in office than I have during the reign of the current occupant. Obama has a higher ceiling to reach if he is elected however, and his election would also clearly mark the advent of a new historical period. McCain would most likely be a footnote president and transitional figure signifying not much.
Pat: If Roger had made an actual argument, like the intellectual he claims to be, I might have tried to refute it. But this post is nothing more than a collection of every vague, stale, meaningless insinuation that has been circulating in right-wing blogs for months. Like the bit about Auschwitz. Obama said his uncle helped to liberate Auschwitz, which — horrors! — was not true. In fact, it was his great-uncle, and Buchenwald. So this “gaffe” is 100% meaningless. If that’s the kind of crap Roger has to fling to try to damage Obama, rather than attacking anything substantial about him, then he is a big fat hack, and nothing more. The fact that his supporting links go to places like WorldNut Daily and the NY Post doesn’t help.
I guess I’m just puzzled, because if I was in Roger’s shoes — that is, having published some supposedly serious books and editing a supposedly serious magazine — I would be a little bit more careful with my public image, and try to write stuff that had at least a veneer of thought behind it, rather than acting like just another Republican stooge. But then, I’m not a highly regarded pundit and don’t wear a bowtie, so what do I know?
Naturally an Obama supporter will minimize the effect of any of Obama’s gaffes. But there’s so many of them. Sounds like a full time job to me. Maybe you should get a tie, mtraven, and a paycheck.
On the other hand, Obama and Biden are making a big deal out of McCain, when asked how many houses he owns, replied “ask my staff.” His wife, the beer heiress, might have to answer the question the same way. If someone else is managing your investments, you don’t always know exactly what you own. Do you know all the stocks and bonds in your 401k mutual fund? So 100% meaningless and 100% hypocricy by mtraven, Obama and Biden.
Biden’s selection for VP damages Obama’s message of change and Obama cultists could not care less. I am amazed.
“…so what do I know?”
You’ve made that abundantly clear.
I have trouble believing that people whose intellectual sophistication ends with “Bush Lied, People Died” and “No Blood For Oil” are capable of even recognizing serious debate, let alone participating in it.
Maybe Obama is different; he voices support for both sides of virtually every issue. Is that a moral struggle for statesmanship, or mere pandering? Hmmm.
As for the selection of Biden, well…Obama is going to lose anyway, so what the heck.
Biden is up for re-election this year. Will he run for both VP and the Senate? (Does his state even allow it?) Not much faith in Obama if he does, though, eh?
Scott
Hussein may not be “stupid,” but he is clueless. The truth is that Biden is so arrogant and self-centered that he wasn’t going to respond to Hussein’s offer with any logical analysis. In Biden’s mind, there is every reason why he should be on the ticket.
I am still not convinced that Hussein will be nominated by the convention. Hillie and her operatives are twisting arms, distributing bribes (“good price on a presidential pardon”) and making threats. Far, far more dems will drop out if Hillie is not nominated than would if Hussein isn’t nominated.
Obama just wanted to make sure that he had nailed down Delaware’s all important electoral votes.
McCain will have no trouble with us Evangelicals, voting for him, if he picks Romney. We’ve had whole summer to be stunned, day-in and day-out, at Obama’s credentials and “friends” he hangs out with and his militant wife Michelle. The New Yorker Magazine cover nailed it!
Do you really think that “thinking” Americans are going to hand over this great country, to that no drilling, infantacide killing, open border, terrorist sympathizer, hate-filled bigot reverand loving, high taxing, gun controlling, no national defense UN loving, socialized medicine boondoggle loving pussy democrat lawyer in charge?
Barak Milhous Obama and America-is-mean-hating Michelle will be defeated in larger numbers than McGovern! They are examples of Affirmative Action all gone wrong. Even MoDo knew it was all over when she saw Obama implode at Saddleback.
There is a God, and he’s still on the side of the Right in America.
P.S. – BTW, did I mention BO was black? Ironic that he’s the racist.
Biden will not withdraw from his own Senate race. His is a lifetime seat (like Kennedy and Byrd). Too bad for America.
I see that the obamanations have shown up – parrying with their usual witty repartee…
I think that Biden may have been picked as a sop to the feminists, since even Obama isn’t dumb enough to select Hillary!. Biden has been a prime mover for VAWA legislation – possibly the biggest cash cow for feminists ever.
Whether it will be enough is hard to say – I tend to doubt it since they had a candidate who could pass the physical.
SteveinTX
In choosing Biden, the bringer of change shows a brittle side. It seems like he has been letting slip comments that acknowledge the hectoring of Hannity and others, has chosen the attack dog in a gesture that means he intends to fight. So much for transendence and change! -I don’t think he can fight his way into the white house, though it will make for a rousing pep rally this week.
And shame on Obama for lauding the proponent of seperate-but-equal partition for Iraq. That idea was rejected here, from within, by Abraham Lincoln. How obnoxious is it for a cowboy like Biden to push it from without?
“Pat: the selection of Biden helps specifically to sway the fence-sitters . . .”
The latest poll results don’t appear to support your claim.
“And shame on Obama for lauding the proponent of seperate-but-equal partition for Iraq. That idea was rejected here, from within, by Abraham Lincoln.”
Um, no. The legal doctrine of “separate but equal” was upheld by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson three decades after Lincoln’s death. It wasn’t struck down until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
Pat:
You are right to call me on that.
The point I was attempting to make was to take license with the term in order to link civil rights and the civil war. The idea of introducing new borders to ‘solve’ ideological rifts is not as smart as it sounds. Obama ought to be sensitive to that.