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Biden The Frontrunner For VP ?

Posted by PATRICK EDABURN in Politics.
Aug 19th, 2008 | Comments

According to Howard Fineman, Senator Joe Biden is the frontrunner to be the VP pick for Barack Obama. The word is that Obama wants to go with a ’seasoned Beltway type’ and that would be Biden.

I’m not so sure about this. Obviously, Biden is one of the top contenders and I would not be surprised if he ends up being the choice. But Obama has based his campaign on change and I’m not sure that Senator Biden fits that profile. He has had some ethics problems in the past and, at 66, he is not part of the youth ticket the Democrats might like to put forward.

In addition, it has become something of a game in politics to put forward names for the media to speculate over and then choose someone else as the actual candidate. I could see him going with a surprise name like Ken Salazar (D) of Colorado or even Senator Hagel (R) of Nebraska. And don’t count HRC out of the mix.

We should know in the next few days (possibly tomorrow) who the choice is, but don’t be surprised if it’s a name nobody has been talking about.

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Amanda

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again - Bill Richardson is perhaps Obama's best choice for VP. He has most of the same positive attributes as Biden but without the baggage and the severe case of foot-in-mouth disease. He's happy to put his country first, his President second, and his own agenda third. Besides, Obama's been cribbing policy points from Richardson since before Bill dropped out of the race - his energy policy and his plan for Iraq are both very similar to what Richardson put together for his campaign. He could also bring in more Latino votes and his immense popularity in the Southwest could pull some electoral votes into the blue column.

ChrisWWW

Biden is also an unapologetic hawk. He's trying to outhawk McCain on Iran. He voted to invade Iraq. (That's probably why C Stanley likes him so much :-) )

CStanley

What makes you think I'm a fan of Biden? I mean, he's not my least favorite Democrat (wow, so many to choose from there!) but I don't recall ever saying that I like him either. Since you mention it though, I have to admit that I'm going on the assumption that Biden will either get the VP nod or he'd be Obama's Sec of State, and I find that somewhat comforting since it would help convince me that we wouldn't be headed for a second Carter term.

Since Amanda brought up Richardson, it occurs to me that on each side there was a prominent figure mentioned early on whose names have now been dropped from the short lists that are being circulated; Richardson for Obama and Sanford for McCain. In each case I thought those were pretty solid choices and I'm wondering whether all of the head fakes are deflections from those being the actual picks (or has there perhaps been something negative that's turned up in the vetting process for one or both of them?)

ChrisWWW

You repeatedly quoted Biden a few months back when you thought he was criticizing Obama... I dont remember the exact circumstances.

Ricorun

If he were a better public speaker I'd say Bill Richardson would be a very strong VP choice. The guy is obviously immensely talented, and he's done just about everything -- and very well. But he's not a very good public speaker, at least in an open-forum or Q&A type setting. In fact, if anyone has a worse case of foot-in-mouth disease than Biden, it's Richardson.

CStanley

OK, I'll take your word on it, Chris. I just don't recall that but it's certainly possible.

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