Biden:
Many consider him an inspired choice for Vice President.
Arab News, Saudi Arabia
Biden: A 'Canny Choice'
By Barack Obama
"IF Democratic presidential
nominee Barack Obama wanted Hillary Clinton’s blue-collar votes without
actually putting her on the ticket, he has made a canny choice in selecting Senator
Joe Biden."
IF Democratic presidential
nominee Barack Obama wanted Hillary Clinton’s blue-collar votes without
actually putting her on the ticket, he has made a canny choice in selecting Senator
Joe Biden. The senator comes from a poor working-class background and is a
liberal and generally well-regarded Washington insider. Biden also brings two
other strengths to the Obama campaign - a strong defense and foreign affairs
background and, at age 65, the experience and gravitas that Republican rival
John McCain alleges Obama lacks.
Although Russia’s actions in
Georgia have brought foreign policy back into the presidential debate, few
doubt that in the next three months the real issue will be the domestic
economy. But Obama aides, clearly sensing their man’s vulnerability on defense
and foreign affairs, are seeking to cover the gap with Biden. Obama will,
therefore, be freer to focus more fully on economic policies with Biden beside
him when he delivers his views on foreign policy and defense.
A major challenge will be how
the Democratic team handles the Bush Administration’s soon to be inked deal on
quitting Iraq in 2011. The reported vagueness of the agreement, which doesn't,
in fact, make a rock solid commitment to end the occupation in three years
time, ought to be prime campaigning ground for Obama - who has spoken of
quitting Iraq within 16 months of taking office.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
BARACK OBAMA INTRODUCES JOE BIDEN IN SPRINGFIELD, IL. APR. 23
There are those who regret
the passing over of Mrs. Clinton, but it's hard to see how Obama could have worked
with his former rival. Clinton fought a dirty, no-holds-barred campaign that
included personal vituperation. By and large, the Obama team stayed aloof from these
tactics. To have put Clinton on the ticket would not only have allowed the
press and media to spend the next three months digging up every mean thing the
woman ever said about her new boss, it would have been taken as an act of
weakness.
Obama campaigned on being a
man who could bring change. If Clinton had been made running mate for the sake
of the votes of her supporters, it would have suggested that Obama wasn't as
confident as he has insisted he is. Besides which, many on her campaign team
found Clinton a nightmare to work with. Having her reoccupy the White House
would have been a dangerous distraction.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
All this said before he
dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination in January, Biden himself
was scathing in what he called Obama’s limited experience in foreign policy and
defense. Three times chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well
as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Biden was merciless in his criticism of
his then rival. Another front-runner who has joined in backing the Obama ticket
is President Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore, the man who almost certainly won
the vote in Florida in 2000. With his environmentalist credentials, in more
prosperous times Gore might have been chosen. But today U.S. voters care more
about greenbacks than green agendas.
