As the Obama VP pick nears, let me just say...Follow

Good point. Bayh would have turned out the hard liberal activist vote in droves

What does the affect of Obama's VP pick on a grumpy middle-aged political wonk have on a young college kid inspired by Obama to go vote? Probably very little.

I'd expect that your view of who Obama is and what he'll do is leagues different from that of some freshman at University of Colorado.

Out of curiousity, who do you think he should have picked?

Well that's the ***** of it, isn't it? I would have prefered a lesser known face, one who hasn't been in politics too long but has a name. I'm not sure who that would be as I'm not very familiar with politicians outside our tri-state area.

To me, Biden just gives too much of an Old Guard vibe and it doesn't seem to be inline of Obamas commitment for change. Now it just seems like empty words. We'll see.

Well that's the ***** of it, isn't it? I would have prefered a lesser known face

Exactly. A smiling, competent nobody. Preferably a serving or retired Gov.

There was not shortage of options. Maybe they're all closeted gays or something and couldn't be vetted.

Maybe he's trying to inspire you, Smash, by picking someone who he thinks will do a better job as VP, rather than someone designed to net votes. ;)

But I've learned that most people don't start their mornings by reading the political news or say "Ooohh... 3:00. The N. Carolina polling data should be up." So long as Obama continues to project his image and Biden boosts that with "This guy is frickin' amazing", I don't see a real problem. They're already pushing Biden's story of commuting home nightly and being one of the "poorest" members of the Senate

One of? The guy's just bad with money. Last I knew he had a net worth of -$500,000. That may have changed by now, but I'd be hard pressed to think of another Senator who's literally in debt. Not that I've put much thought into it, mind you.

I'm not so sure poverty is a virtue here.


With Bush, there was always the feeling that Cheney was pulling the strings and his old man shadow hung over Bush. I don't see Obama being blotted out by Biden in the same manner and so I see Biden's experience as an asset rather than "This must mean politics as usual".

At risk of sounding Gbajiesque, I think you're missing my point. Obamma had to move to the middle, and yet maintain the enthusiasm of new voters. He's done a fine job balancing that thusfar. Biden, however, takes us firmly out of the enthusiasm camp and into the moderation camp. The more he and McCain seem indistinguishable to naive voters, the less likely they are to vote. I think this pick, and the timing of it (while obviously not by design) sucks all the air out of the Convention. I expect the polls to remain flatly unchanged as a result. McCain still has the opportunity to motivate much of his base with his pick. If it's Romney, ok, we likely win a close election. If it's a real evangelical, I think it's 55/45 McCain.

Beats me. The stories the past few days placed him in the lower 3 or so.

We can go back and forth on the rest but, as you said, we won't know until we know. I can sincerely say that the rest of the top tier made me go "Meh" but at least Biden made me go "Meh, but..."

I'm just mad that The Man won't let Governor Blagojevich be on the VP ticket.

More like 70ish. Tick tock

Yeah, whatever. I don't vote.

Although, if Smash starts saying that Obama will lose, this should inspire us all

Stop breaking the fourth wall!!!

Not only is he black too, but he's also blind!

Jeeter's black?

Yup. While the polls may not show it yet, that's largely because most people don't actually know where Biden stands on most things yet. That'll change over the next couple months. Heck. It'll change once he opens his mouth. He's very liberal in his thinking and makes no real attempt to hide it. It's an amusing quality on a political comedy show, but not so great in this context I suspect...

The choice of Biden not only doesn't really gain Obama much (if anything) but it costs him two of his best real attacks against McCain. Obama's position on the war, while difficult given the current success could still stand on the "But I opposed it in the first place". He's now lost that by picking a VP who voted for the war, quite vocally in fact.

The second, as you touched on, was the "McCain's part of the broken system" argument. Kinda hard to argue that and then pick someone who's been in the Senate longer than McCain as your running mate. His choice just hosed his 527 support right there.


What the Obama camp needed was someone who'd fill in some gaps for Obama without being too obvious that there were gaps to be filled, while bringing the ticket as a whole towards the center (again without being too obvious about it) and while *not* stepping on the key talking points of the campaign. I think they managed to get just about all of them exactly wrong with Biden.

Maybe. There's no way we'll ever be able to establish that. I think turnout, particularly youth turnout will be significantly depressed by Biden as VP, with no offsetting gain in moderate voters.

I wouldn't know about other demographics, but youth voters aren't going to be significantly affected by Biden. Younger voters tend to focus solely on the president; that is why they are completely ignored by congressmen.

Edited, Aug 25th 2008 2:29pm by Allegory