Thursday, Aug 28, 2008

By John Brummett
Columnist, Arkansas News Bureau

Everything about Joe Biden says weakness in Barack Obama.

They say that Biden, being Catholic, will help Obama with Catholics. That is to say that Obama, in his own right, needs help with Catholics.

They say that Biden, hailing from Scranton, Pa., before settling in nearby in Delaware, will help Obama in his vital native state. That is to say that Obama, in his own right, needs help in a blue state that even John Kerry won.

They say that Biden, a scrapper from the working class, will help Obama with white blue-collar voters. That is to say that Obama, in his own right, got creamed in his party's primaries among these vital voters from Pennsylvania down through West Virginia into Ohio and on to Kentucky by Hillary Clinton.

They say that Biden, a four-decades member of the U.S. Senate, will help Obama by lending experience. That is to say that Obama, in his own right, lacks experience. Biden's selection invokes a contradiction: Obama presumes to offer a new kind of politics, yet his first real decision embraces the very oldest politics.

They say that Biden, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee with insights and connections around the world, will help Obama with international credentials. That is to say that Obama, in his own right, lacks international credentials. They say that Biden will lend Obama many of the same benefits that Hillary would have provided as the running mate. That is to say that Obama didn't pick her. It is to send a message to Hillary's fervent female constituency that Obama didn't even consider her and that he saw no reason to explain why.

We know why he didn't. One reason is that he doesn't much care for her and didn't want to be overpowered by her. He couldn't have said that. The other is that Bill's baggage would have been too much to endure. Obama surely could have said something about that, in a delicate way.

Read the entire article here.