Oh Biden: A ticket to win

Just finished watching the Obama-Biden joint event. Obama had a fiery speech which set Biden's blue-collar story in good context (the similarities between the two candidates' backgrounds are palpable, despite the differences in location). Obviously the "change" thing is going to be something of a trip wire with a 36-year Senator on the ticket, but framing it as a change from George Bush isn't that assailable. And Biden's character and personal story provides a good strength to the ticket as well. I thought this line from Obama - "Joe Biden is what so many others pretend to be -- a statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong" - was interesting, especially considering that Biden kind of defines bluster in some ways. The difference is that he is also clear-eyed enough to see the facts through the posturing. And he's passionate about it, too.



Biden's speech, using notes instead of the TelePrompTer, was solid and had a lot of rise and fall to it, and of course this was the highlight:

In so doing, he got off the best line of the day, a reference to McCain's multiple homes, noting that McCain might have a bit of trouble sitting down to consider the kitchen table problems faced by ordinary Americans.

"He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at," Biden quipped.

Biden, who used much of his speech to link McCain to Bush, also offered a glimpse of how he'll deal with the fact that he's praised McCain in the past, painting McCain as having nothing in common with the earlier McCain he admired.

He "gave in to the right wing of his political party, and gave in to the swift boat politics that he once so deplored," Biden shouted.

Interestingly, Biden also revealed that he may be taking on McCain's war service as an issue a little more frontally than Obama may be willing to do.

"These times require more than a good soldier," Biden said. "They require a wise leader." He went on to describe Obama as "a clear eyed pragmatist who will get the job done."

There was also the line "You can't change America when you know your first four years as President looks exactly like the last eight years of George Bush's Presidency."

Senate Republicans are already praising the Obama-Biden ticket.

Look, I don't want to oversell Joe Biden. Here's his lowest moment, when he fell all over himself to support the bankruptcy bill, a horrible piece of corporate welfare. I called the post "Biden in Two-Thousand Never." But what Biden does do is open up the argument. It suggests that Obama knows that his personal charisma and the recoil from Bush is not enough, and having a partner in making the case that a new direction is necessary is paramount.

There was a hope in the early days of the Obama campaign that different would be enough. Different in aesthetics and experience and age and ideas. Different would assert change. Kathleen Sebelius would have represented change. Visually, her and Obama on a stage together would have been the most powerful image of political transformation in decades. But a choice like her presupposed belief. Otherwise, you'd be adorning a cathedral that had no promise of parishioners.

Turned out not to be true. So they needed an arguer. Someone able to make the case that the other guy is wrong, and Obama is right. That's, fundamentally, what Biden represents. Biden doesn't presuppose belief. He's a persuader. Sometimes at great length, sometimes to the point of virtual self parody, but fundamentally, his political style has always been to argue until everyone else agrees.

For progressives, this is encouraging pick. More encouraging than Bayh, or Kaine, or even, in a way, Sebelius. More encouraging than picks who might have been more progressive, but less pugnacious. Elevating Biden suggests that the Obama campaign has decided to have an argument. Not try to win on momentum and inspiration and GOTV, but to engage, and win, an argument about which set of ideas is better for the future of the country. And in Biden, they've engaged at the point of greatest vulnerability and opportunity for Democrats: National security.

One thing that you see from Barack Obama is that, in spite of the perceived idealism, he does what is necessary to win. McCain had to recalibrate his campaign in June; Obama is doing so now. The race to the finish favors Obama.

...Let me agree with Stoller that Biden is an "old progressive" - generally with liberals on a lot of issues, but not of the same mindset as the new progressive movement.