Slow Joe

Prediction: come mid-November one of the reasons cited for Barack Obama's loss in the general election will be his selection of Joe Biden as his running mate. I don't mean because Biden is a gaffe machine, though he is. His comment about Obama being 'the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean' won't hurt the ticket, nor will his 'you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent' comment. It's been well-observed that Biden has about as much control over what comes out of his mouth as an infant has over what comes out of his rear-end. But unless Biden unleashes a real whopper during the campaign, none of this matters much.

What matters is that Joe Biden screams Washington establishment. When he flashes those teeth he's the epitome of the smarmy, insincere Washington politician. Obama's whole story was that he was something new, an alternative to Washington, post-racial, post-partisan, and all that other nonsense. That story has been falling apart for some time now, what with his associations with Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko, and Bill Ayers, his comments about the rubes who 'cling to guns and religion', his head-snapping turn to the center after gaining the nomination, his evasiveness and downright lying on issues such as his vote in the Illinois Senate on the Born-Alive act. He got down in the dirt with Hillary Clinton during the nominating campaign and now he is doing the same with John McCain. He's exposed himself as just another pandering politician who stands for nothing except his own success. And now he picks Biden as his running-mate, which pretty much drives a nail into the coffin of the Barack the reformer story. What you have left once that story is gone is a man who knows little and cares less about policy, an empty suit with a radical left-wing past, a pompous gasbag with almost no national experience

It's pretty clear that the Russian invasion of Georgia, and Obama's pathetically weak initial reaction to it, is the reason for the Biden choice. Slow Joe has been the head of the Senate Foreign Relations committee for sometime now and Obama badly needed to shore himself up on foreign policy, about which he appears to know nothing. But just think of this: Obama-Biden. It stinks of establishment in a way that Obama-Kaine, or Obama-Bayh do not.

I actually have a soft spot for Biden. His verbal gaffes have given me much glee over the years, and I actually think there is something decent about the man - he is not vicious in the manner of a lot of Democrats, like Leahy, or Reid, or Dodd. But I think in the end his selection to be Obama's running mate will be seen as a mistake.

McCain can capitalize on this moment. He shored himself up with conservatives last week at the Rick Warren Saddleback interview with his answer on when life begins (the question Obama refused to answer, saying it was 'above his pay grade'.) And with the drilling issue so prominent in the minds of voters right now, picking Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as his running mate would help in a number of ways. She's pro-life, which would firm McCain up with the conservative base. She is pro-drilling in ANWR (as almost everyone in Alaska is) and extremely articulate on the issue - she can swing McCain and a lot of others over to her opinion. Plus she's a woman which would help get the Hillary voters who are upset that their girl lost. Add to this that she's a reformer - something the state of Alaska is in dire need of - and it seems to me that she'd make a very nice fit for McCain and his pitch for Washington reform.

And finally, she is very easy on the eyes. That can't hurt.