I suppose I should weigh in on the Biden choice here.I think it was a boring choice... and exactly what Obama should have done.
He did say "literally" too much, and there's the plagiarism thing, but really, can most Americans spell that word without looking it up?
Why Blue Gal, you elitist blogger, you.
He's an old white guy (check) and everybody knows who he is to the point of ennui. My point exactly. America has enough adjusting to do with Obama himself. I heard one lady citizen on NPR express disappointment about his not picking Hillary, and then she "literally" said, "I think it would have been so historic to have both a woman and a ("literally," she stumbled over the next word rather than paused)...um, Black person on the ticket." Sigh.
On topic, I think one of the reasons Hillary did not get the spot (and may have turned it down cold) is the completely different cultures of the two campaigns. Pop Quiz: Do you know who this person is?
Think about it for a minute. Now tell me who these people are:
Oh. And this person:
I'll bet regular readers of this blog can name at least two of the latter four shown above, and remember the interview with the last one and where he got the rum.
I had to Google to find a picture of number one, and then I was surprised (though I shouldn't have been, not at all) that he looks just like every pasty white guy I've ever had the privilege to sit beside in a bi-weekly IT staff meeting.
That's Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe. I get almost as many emails from him per week as I do from desperate Nigerian heiresses. And until this writing I really had no idea what he looked like.
To ask Hillary Clinton to jettison her posse in order to be Vice President would have been unfair. (But don't get me started about their culpability for her loss.) If she was asked, under those conditions, I'm sure she turned Obama down.
But the Obama campaign has not rolled this far to the White House with a lot of celebrity politicos riding the bus. And it can't start now. The decision to NOT choose Hillary was mutual, I'm sure.
Biden was the right choice. (yawn)
wow, so *that's* David Plouffe. He's top of my email inbox most of the time too... which probably means that I need to make more friends (especially since, as a non-US citizen, I'd have to ignore all of his requests even if I wanted to sign over my entire bank account to him).
ReplyDeleteDid you feel me waving to you?
ReplyDeleteI spent the day in Riverton listening to my wife's relations hold forth on the pressing issues of the day. Whether the Cubs will fade early enough for the Cardinals to pull it out. When I overheard mention of Bush I was disappointed to find out it was Kyle Busch.
The highlight of my day was a half-hearted endorsement of Obama by default. Shorter version: "The hole we're in was dug by Rethugs. Dems would NEVER have, have never fucked things up THIS badly."
A quick tally put half ready/eager to cancel out the other half of what is typically solid RED voters. Barring a Cubs style collapse, it will be dems electing a Dem president.
I promise to call next time...
I agree with your summation as to the selection of Biden.
ReplyDeleteThere would be no strategic advantage to picking another largely unknown politician to put alongside the senator from Illinois. Unless he or she had Obama's charisma (and few do) that would only magnify Barack's reasonably thin Washington resume.
I agree with your assessment, too. Hillary's personnel baggage would have been hard to handle. The other aspect of a Hillary Vice Presidential slot that would be hard to deal with is Bill. I mean, who wants to try to lead with a former, popular (and controversial) president hanging around the Veep mansion? Were I to take on a new leadership job, I certainly wouldn't want my second to be married to the person who used to have my job. It just wouldn't work.
ReplyDeleteRemember how the Clinton's kept putting off releasing their financial records, and we never found out about little things like who was making big contributions to the Clinton Library? I'm sure that's why she was never vetted. Obama probably told her they'd need to see all those records, and she told him to forget about it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, there was a sophomoric little movie back in the early to mid 70s called Tunnelvision or the Groove Tube (they were both about the same and came out around the same time, so I'm always confusing them) that had a short film featuring all the US presidents, from Washington to... Washington, who happened to be a black woman. Maybe that Clinton supporter can wait for that historic moment now that she can forget about an Obama/Clinton ticket.
Two top Friends of Hill 'n Bill are going to commentate on the Dimocrat convention for Fox News. That'd be Lanny Davis and the loathesome Howard Wolfson.
ReplyDeleteThat'll be fair and balanced, I'm surrrrre.
As to Biden, he's pro-death penalty, pro-Iraq War (at least he was before he was against it), pro-bankruptcy bill, and he helped get our current AG appointed.
Yeah, he's perfect.
{{sigh}}
Your words are wise indeed, which is no surprise!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea what David looked like either.
As for the Clintons, it just has to stop.
While I respect people's right to sit it out or do a write-in fine. If there is a lot of divisive crap in Denver next week, not fine.
i was wondering who David Plouffe was....
ReplyDeleteI agree with your take on Biden, but I don't think Hill was asked. After she suggested that she had experience, McCain had experience but all Obama had was one speech...that killed it. Thank goodness. I'm so over the Clintons. Time to move on.
ReplyDeleteHey, BlueGal, thanks for the linkage!
ReplyDeleteAs for Biden, I wish it had been Dodd or Richardson.
For what I know about the two, I would have been OK with Dodd or Richardson, too.
ReplyDeleteBiden is better than Bayh or Kaine and not as good as Dodd or Clark. Richardson, they say, has way too many skeletons in his closet. The way I look at it, the veep could have been way worse and at least Biden can be an effective attack dog.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Blue Gal's explanation as far as HRC is concerned, but think this is only one of many reasons she was never considered. There seemed (and still seems) to be considerable dislike between Barack and Bill/Hill. I wonder some times how much Bill's ego caused it, but that is totally conjecture.
As far as Biden being for the bankruptcy bill, he is probably the only Democrat with a legit excuse. He is from Delaware for Pete's sake.
Biden is a bow to the bankers and defense spenders that Obama has fooled liberals and progressives into supporting him.
ReplyDeleteI think I ignore the news too much to know who people are, though even I have the idea that Biden is boring. He's more depressing than I realized after reading what Dave wrote about him, though I did look up his LGBT attitudes on my blog. Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteAs to Obama not asking Hillary: I've heard that she asked him not to. Maybe because of not wanting to be vetted.
ReplyDeleteNice work BlueGal. I agree on this one and was glad to see you speak it over at C&L. Peace. Well said.
ReplyDelete