Great Pick

Of course Obama’s message of change is not harmed by selecting Joe Biden. To implement change you have to “make it happen,” and Joe Biden is the man who can be the good right arm to that end. Obama is the author of that change, Biden the counselor of method. So rather than diminished, Obama’s message of change is enhanced by this choice; we’ve always known that he believed in it, now we believe that he can get it done.

To the extent that any change is actually going to be implemented, of course. Obama is not the agent of change that he pretends to be. He will maintain this nation’s ruinous course down the road of world domination and empire. And any changes he makes in the national defense/security leviathan will at best only slightly modify its track record of succeeding only in it’s real purpose of rewarding corporations while failing at actually making the nation more safe. But he may shift the regulation of commerce slightly more toward a populist direction, and he certainly will be better for this nation in terms of women’s and civil rights than his opponent.

Anyway, why not Clinton in the role that Obama chose Biden for? Because no one would ever have been sure that Obama was in charge. We’ve been there before, haven’t we?

The media keeps trotting out this meme of “America doesn’t know who Obama is.” What? He’s been campaigning for nineteen months. His life story has been pored over in detail for more than a year and a half. Of course we know who Obama is, but the media is telling us not to believe it. Joe Biden is going to tell us to believe it and, coming from Joe Biden, we will.

The Obama campaign has been unwilling or unable to cut through the media preservation of the honorable, straight talking, maverick image which, if John McCain ever deserved to begin with, he abandoned in his current quest for the presidency. It took Joe Biden a matter of minutes after his nomination to show precisely how willing and able he is to cut through that particular brand of nonsense, and to attack based on issues and actions rather than on character. His charges will be based on what McCain is doing and on his policies, not on what qualities McCain possesses or lacks.

Joe Biden: “His policies are…, he has supported Bush, he has voted to….”

McCain: “He is inexperienced, not ready to lead, he lacks judgement.”

Which of those is the honorable campaigner, the “straight talker.” Facts can be substantiated. Character assassination can never be more than an empty threat.

Joe Biden is a fighter. You won’t see Joe “working the refs.” He’ll leave complaints about media coverage and unfair treatment to others. Complaints about fairness is for wimps and Joe Biden is no wimp. “Just get up,” he says, “and get on with it.” And he says it with a charming smile.

The Democratic ticket just got better.