Inside Politics Daily

Process of Elimination Points to Biden

Posted:
08/14/08
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza joined Keith Olbermann to analyze Barack Obama's choice of running mate. Cillizza, who wrote a companion post today titled, "The Case for Joe Biden," argues that the process of elimination has left Joe Biden as the hottest candidate (and possibly the only candidate) left in the pool.

Senator Evan Bayh, Olbermann reasoned, might be eliminated because if he did become Vice President, his state's Governor is a Republican who would select a Republican to succeed Bayh.

As for Kaine--as Tommy Christopher posted earlier--the announcement that former Virginia Governor and current Senate candidate Mark Warner will give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention has been widely interpreted today as the death knell of Kaine's chances because having two Virginia Governors starring on consecutive nights of the convention smacks of inefficient pandering.

Cilizza casts Biden as a potent attack dog for Obama, taking McCain to task on his perceived strength, foreign policy.Cilizza writes:
Here's a snippet from Biden's comments about McCain during a conference call last month: "He doesn't get it. The mere fact that you would have someone compare the circumstances now, in the past, or in the future, of Iraq to the ending of World War II and the ending of the Korean war absolutely demonstrates a total fundamental lack of understanding of what the problems America faces."

That quote (and others like it) suggest Biden can -- and would -- go toe to toe with McCain (and whoever the Arizona Senator chooses as his running mate) over conflicts across the world, relationships with foreign leaders and vision for the future of the country.

One other potential foreign policy benefit to Obama in picking Biden. The Delaware senator has known McCain for the better part of three decades, meaning that he knows ever nook and cranny, every nuance of the positions that the Arizona Senator has taken over that time. That means the Obama campaign can call McCain on any sort of foreign policy flip flop by using Biden, a credible messenger on the issues.
For similar reasons, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com sees Wesley Clark as Obama's best choice. "Joe Biden has a lot of credibility on foreign policy," he writes, "but the aesthetics of what he could do on the stump and in interviews aren't really a match for those of a bona fide, ex-General. Biden might leave Obama better equipped to defend news cycles in which something like the South Ossetia conflict is the central topic; Clark might actually be able to win them."

Clark's military service gives him an advantage over Biden, but the withering media firestorm that surrounded Clark after his appearance on Face the Nation in June was thought to be the end of his VP chances. Resurrecting Clark now would certainly reignite that incident. Biden also is perceived as having a plan to wrap up American involvement in Iraq by partitioning the country into a Kurdish, a Sunni and a Shi'ite zone.

Biden could also be a difficult pick because of a number of relatively minor scandals old and new and his tendency to stick his foot in his mouth just as often as he lands damaging rhetorical blows.

Blogger Markos Moulitsas believes that the floating of Kaine and Bayh as contenders must be a ruse. "I'm trying to derive some hope," he wrote, "from the fact the Obama campaign plans on releasing the name of the veep via text message. Because if people get that message and it says "Bayh" or "Kaine", too many of those phones will be thrown out the window of moving cars, or against the wall, or into a lake."

Our own Tommy Christopher still holds out hope for Senator Clinton, despite the perception that her prospects are dimming. Clinton is such a huge force in Democratic politics that the Obama campaign can hold out for the last second, before weighing their pick against Clinton, so she can never be counted out, even based on the best intel we seem to have--convention scheduling.

Jay Allbritton

Jay Allbritton is a blogger living in Baltimore. He writes the political blog, Ice Station Tango... more

Contact Jay Allbritton

subscribe to: RSS email: Jay Allbritton

Related Articles

DAILY QUOTE


"What I did to you was wrong. I was completely self-centered and only thinking of myself."
  • Happening Right Now

     

News From Trusted Politics Daily Partners