First Impressions

24 August 2008 |permalink | email article

When Biden unexpectedly went to Georgia last weekend to assess the Russian invasion it was my immediate sense that there was more to the visit than his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

If Obama was still heavily weighing Bayh, Kaine or anyone else near the goal line Biden’s visit made him the instant frontrunner and his bio tipped the scales in terms of experience and gravitas – not for his garrulous reputation.

It is already being called a formidable ticket, and a risky ticket and not a comfort zone choice for the Democratic nominee.

Biden has a working-class Scranton-bred Irish-Catholic heritage, is his party’s best foreign policy surrogate, was elected to the Senate as a change agent at 29, is a great debater, fighter on domestic policy and women’s issues, comfortable but not wealthy and has known personal family tragedy.

Marc Ambinder, an Atlantic associate editor, is blogging the 2008 presidential election. He suggests that what impressed Obama about Biden is that Biden gets things done – and demonstrates some level of intellectual seriousness about the condition of the world.

“He’s a man of action. He’s not a bullshitter. I get the sense that Biden, 65, is pretty well aware at his age that, at age 73 in eight years, he’s not going to be a viable presidential choice, and thus able to convince Obama that because of the vice presidency would be his terminal position, the famous Biden ego will take a subordinate role.”

Biden will be the subject of much criticism, starting with his 1987 plagiarism bout, his comments about Obama and being a Washington insider which militates against the change mantra.

McCain and the Republican National Committee will have plenty of fodder for attack ads, and in a normal year Biden would probably not have been the right choice. But will Romney be able to crush Biden in a debate?

Ambinder notes, “The biggest trope is that the Dems are an All Talk ticket. Two famous talkers.”

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