Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. - The "OFFICIAL" Thread - complaints + wohoos

[Lunar]

They starated sending the text messages 40 minutes ago to the people on the east coast.  Is there anyone with technical knowledge that knows how long it takes to send an identical text message to a million people through a computer system?

Apparently alot.

lol your sooo impatient. Calm down...its coming I promise.

I am impatient but I kind of just want to go to sleep without turning off my phone.

I still think the Obama campaign has shown some sort of incompetence with this whole text-message thing.  I seriously cannot believe that they wanted John King to break the news at 12:42 am on CNN and then send out the text messages three hours later.  Again, Gibbs had his scheduled and then canceled appearences.


OMFG I JUST GOT IT 1:03 am!

[Meeker]

They're clearly going East to West... probably would've crashed the system if they sent them all at once.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

There seem to be a lot of 3AM phone calls messages.

[Lunar]

They're clearly going East to West... probably would've crashed the system if they sent them all at once.

And of course that makes more sense to try and message the people on the East Coast before 4 am too.

Still, I've lowered my opinion of the Obama campaign, I wonder what happened such that they fell apart at the very height of their suspense.  There is 0% chance that they planned to release the VP this late at night.

[Meeker]

The buzz is that the Bayh camp leaked it out of spite, thus screwing up Obama's plan.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The buzz is that the Bayh camp leaked it out of spite, thus screwing up Obama's plan.

Obama shouldn't have wasted his time with that DLC deadwood.

[Lunar]

DAMN, the latest Politco article is a little hard-hitting, what do you guys think?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12735.html

Forget the idea that opposition researchers got cracking the very moment that Sen. Barack Obama announced Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate—they’ve long been poring over his records and background, and those of all the most likely vice-presidential picks.

For all that, though, the likeliest attacks in Biden are all matters of public record, and often problems of his own making.

Biden, who dropped out of the 1988 Democratic primary after he was accused of lifting sections of his stump speech about his humble origins from British Labour party leader Neil Kinnock, more recently took heat in 2006, when he said, “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

This year, he managed to blow up his official announcement he was entering the race when he deemed Obama “the first mainstream African American [candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

Reporters and opposition researchers are already salivating at the verbal grenades yet to be launched.

More substantively, Biden supported the 2002 resolution that authorized the war in Iraq—a resolution that Obama opposed and, in the primaries at least, painted as “the most important foreign-policy decision in a generation.”

Biden was on the wrong side of that thinking, by Obama’s lights. In 2002, he said that America had “no choice but to eliminate” Saddam Hussein.

While preparing for his own run at the party’s nomination last year, he took several shots at Obama’s inexperience, warning that “If the Democrats think we’re going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person being able to table unimpeachable credentials on national security and foreign policy, I think we’re making a tragic mistake.”

When Obama gave a speech saying he’d send troops into Pakistan if he had actionable intelligence and the Pakistani government was unwilling to act, Biden told NPR that “It’s a well-intentioned notion he has, but it’s a very naïve way of thinking how you’re going to conduct foreign policy,” adding of his then-rival, in a remark Republicans are sure to revive, “Having talking points on foreign policy doesn’t get you there.”

Biden also said last year of his now running mate, that “I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.” He may also see clips from his 1988 presidential run, when he ran an ad in which the narrator warns:

”The White House isn't a place to learn how to deal with international crisis, the balance of power... the economic future of the next generation,' the narrator of Biden's 1988 ad for the Democratic nomination said. "The president has got to know the territory.”

Biden, 65, came to Congress at the age of 30, meaning he’s spent more than half his life in the institution, which Republicans will surely charge makes him an unsuitable running mate for a candidate of change.

Another moment likely to be re-used against him is his August 2, 2005 Daily Show appearance where Jon Stewart asked him of a potential 2008 run, “You may end up going against a Senate colleague, perhaps McCain, perhaps Frist?”

Biden replied, “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off — be well off no matter who...”

First elected to the Senate at the tender age of  29, Biden has now spent more than half his life there, which cuts against Obama’s change message, even as it insulates the first-term Illinois Senator from charges that he’s too green for the White House.

Biden has accepted $5,133,072 in contributions from lawyers and lobbyists since 2003. Obama does not accept contributions from federally registered lobbyists.

And he has one other weakness that hasn't received much attention to date. One of Biden's sons, Hunter, is a registered Washington lobbyist in a year in which Obama has been excoriating lobbyists and the culture of corruption in Washington. The younger Biden is a name partner at the firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair, LLP, and seems to have specialized in lobbying for just the kind of earmark spending by Congress that Obama has vowed to slash. Republican insiders say the party is likely to make an issue of Biden's family lobbying ties.

Also expect to hear more about Biden's close ties with credit card companies. His largest contributor (based on total contributions by employees) over the past five years has been MBNA, the Delaware-based bank aquired in 2005 by Bank of America than until then was the world's largest independent credit card issuer and a major supporter of the 2005 bankruptcy bill that Biden crossed the aisle to support.

Top five donors (including employee donations):
MBNA Corp. (Delaware-based bank acquired in 2005 by Bank of America)
Pachulski, Stang et al. (law firm with major Delaware officers)
Young, Conaway et al. (large Delaware law firm)
Law Office of Peter Angelos (mid-Atlantic trial law firm)
Simmons Cooper LLC (national trial law firm)

Top five industry group contributors:
Lawyers/law firms
Real estate
Retired
Securities & investment
Miscellaneous finance

[Meeker]

Politico is a right-wing rag. Nothing new.

Hawaiians are getting their texts, but not me!

[minionofmidas]

I like Biden, but I wouldn't have picked him. I wouldn't have picked a Senator, full stop.

The buzz is that the Bayh camp leaked it out of spite, thus screwing up Obama's plan.

Obama shouldn't have wasted his time with that DLC deadwood.

Agreed.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

I like Biden, but I wouldn't have picked him. I wouldn't have picked a Senator, full stop.

Agreed. Especially one who's been a Washington Insider since 1973. If I was Barack Obama, I would have selected someone like Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana with an "outsider" image" to continue Obama's message of real "change".

[Lunar]

I like Biden, but I wouldn't have picked him. I wouldn't have picked a Senator, full stop.

Agreed. Especially one who's been a Washington Insider since 1973. If I was Barack Obama, I would have selected someone like Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana with an "outsider" image" to continue Obama's message of real "change".

I agree too.

But Obama's campaiign does not show signs of being a risk-taking group when it comes to grand strategy.  They have, ever since the primaries, tended strongly to play things safe.

Biden, while he caries a lengthy record that includes disses towards Obama, is about as safe and inoffensive of a pick as Obama could get without going for more risky, unknown picks like Chet Edwards.

You can check my posts going back many months and I always said that McCain was the more likely of the two to select an outside-the-box pick.  We'll see if he will stick in the box or not in a week.

I can't fault Obama for choosing Biden.  I think Biden will be great for all of us on the forum since he is more likely to provide theatrics than Bayh or others who would stoicly stick to the message-of-the-day.  Biden might outright call Romney a douchebag or something, hah.  Bayh, my mainstream pick, would not receive one third the coverage on this forum.

[minionofmidas]

What, for McCain, would represent "outside the box", I wonder? Isn't it an iron law of vice presidential selection that Republicans pick incompetent douchebags that noone would have guessed at, much like the CDU chooses its presidential candidates (a ceremonial office) over here? [/exaggeration. Besides, last time round it was the SPD as did that. Must have been something to do with the foregoneness of the result...]

[Gustaf]

I think Biden's son Jimmy in Iraq is a big plus too.  Biden can have a big moment in the debate or in his acceptance speak where he boosts his credibility by saying: "NO! We would not rather lose a war than lose an election, because my SON would be dead"

Anyone else think that would be powerful?

Um...I think that would be very bad taste, but whatever. I doubt Biden would sink that low (there are few people even in the political world of today who would, imo).

This eems like a solid, boring choice to me. I don't see it adding much, either positive or negative to the ticket. So a little defensive by Obama, maybe (certainly not very "politics of change" of him) but not a bad choice at all.

[Silent Hunter]

OK, aside from plagiarising Neil Kinnock, what has Biden actually done?

[Gustaf]

OK, aside from plagiarising Neil Kinnock, what has Biden actually done?

Those were actually my exact thoughts when first seeing the news.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Obama/Biden kinda takes away the "they" have no experience in foreign affairs card from McCain's deck.

Oops.

[© tweed]

I like Biden. It'll make for one helluva VP debate if McCain chooses Romney.

two very smart people, even if both are assholes.

[MasterJedi]

Obama/Biden kinda takes away the "they" have no experience in foreign affairs card from McCain's deck.

Oops.

Well you can hit Obama because Biden has said, and stood by his statement, that Obama isn't ready to be President from the primaries.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Obama/Biden kinda takes away the "they" have no experience in foreign affairs card from McCain's deck.

Oops.

Well you can hit Obama because Biden has said, and stood by his statement, that Obama isn't ready to be President from the primaries.

Oh, Jedi, c'mon, Hillary implied the same thing and Biden would have called him the n-word if it could have got him some votes.....and I don't recall Romney, Huck and Guiliani saying glowing words about McCain.  That's politics.

I'm sure JFK picked LBJ because of the glowing things LBJ said about him, right?

[TomC]

Woo hoo! Since America's not ready for a black-hispanic ticket, Biden's the best possible pick.

[Franzl]

I am extremely happy about Biden as Obama's running mate. I hoped for it, and I predicted it. Couldn't be better!

[JSojourner]

I couldn't be happier.  Finally, something I predicted has come true.  (Even if I did throw out a dozen or more alternate scenarios.)

Biden helps far more than he hurts.

1.    Even Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican, has called Biden one of the greatest foreign policy minds in either party.  (Lugar's no slouch, himself!)  Biden is to Obama what Cheney was to Bush.  The fresh-faced, inexperienced leader gets a mentor of impressive proportions.

2.    It's going to be real problematic for McCain to persist in the lie that "Obama wants America to lose in Iraq" if the running mate has a son serving over there.

3.    Biden is every bit as scandal-free as McCain.  If they want to talk about Neil Kinnock, we can talk about Charles Keating.  Both are old news and both men have honorably moved on.

4.    Biden is a liberal, but not quite as liberal as the Kennedy-Kerry-Sanders-Boxer-Feingold tribe.  He's a liberal pragmatist who won't scare independants and conservative Democrats. 

I must say, though, I reject the idea that Biden helps Obama in Pennsylvania.  Just because the guy was born there -- or lived there long ago -- doesn't mean anything.  George H.W. Bush, in 1988 and 1992, claimed Texas, Maine, Connecticut and South Carolina as "home states". Biden calling Pennsylvania one of his "home states" will matter about as much as Obama calling Kansas a "home state".  If Obama-Biden wins Pa, it will be for other reasons.

As to him being gaffe prone, I have heard a grand total of two things.  Some dumb comment about Indian accents and convenience stores.  And the Obama is a clean, articulate guy remark.  Definitely not good.  But big deal.  I don't see any evidence of him being a gaffe "machine".  A machine should crank out at least one good one a month, no?  Plus, Biden was amazingly circumspect and cautious in the primary.  That's likely to continue.

He DOES bloviate however.  Long speeches, longer lectures...this could be bad.  But then, to his credit, Biden is able to laugh at himself.  He KNOWS he has the problem.  And he has made light of it in the recent past.

I am not worried at all.  The key will be -- who does McCain counter with?  And I am sure there is another thread about that somewhere...

[Lunar]

Biden might be an "above average" surrogate in Pennsylvania, but that's all.  Like I said, Biden is an older, more Catholic sort of guy and Pennsylvania is one of the oldest, most Catholic states.

Biden's understanding of economic issues though is a big question mark, is it not?

[NOVA Green]

Biden might be an "above average" surrogate in Pennsylvania, but that's all.  Like I said, Biden is an older, more Catholic sort of guy and Pennsylvania is one of the oldest, most Catholic states.

Biden's understanding of economic issues though is a big question mark, is it not?

His hard-line position on Cuba might help Obama a little bit in Florida, along with his strong support for social security, and strong support for Israel.

On economic issues, he seems to have a fairly center-left position, although as others have noted his record on free trade is more mixed. I'm not sure how his support for NAFTA will play in Ohio, but he has opposed more recent free trade agreements, which should negate some of the potential liabilities on this.

[Sensei]

The $64,000 question here is how much Biden will help with the Catholic vote.