Down there in the comments a coupla posts back (entitled Democratic VP Watch), our most prolific commenter - Anonymous - offers an analysis of the status quo.

First, we have a candidate - Obama - with virtually NO experience working in or with government. Then we have his pick of an extremely experienced VP running mate.
You know what this sounds like to me? This sounds like a COMPLETE REPEAT of the BUSH presidency!
Biden is Cheney and Obama is Bush …!

I can see the analogy, but it really doesn’t apply.

Bush was a scion of the Republican Party - not just because of his father’s stature and position - it goes way back. He’s a child of privilege. His father made his own fortune in the oil business, but both sides of his forebears were accomplished and wealthy and powerful. Bush’s grandfather was a Senator from Connecticut (back when Connecticut was bedrock Republican territory).

However, George W. was never considered to be a serious guy, and when he wasn’t adrift and completely irrelevant, he was failing. The fair-haired boy in the Bush family was not George W, it was Jeb; a natural born leader who was tearing it up in a swing state with a strong-executive government and a lot of electoral votes.

Along comes Karl Rove and a pretty specific set of circumstances. Rove gets George W installed in the (nearly honorary) position of Governor of Texas and then, along with the group of senior Republican advisers (collectively know as the Vulcans), a whole lot of money, and some other key players from Bush 41’s Administration, manufactures a candidate. The single key “adviser” to George W in his Vice Presidential “vetting” process was one Dick Cheney.

Obama came out of nowhere, successfully took on the principal power structure of the Democratic Party, and won. He appointed a small staff to vet potential VP candidates and, unlike George W, was very candid about what he saw as the important attributes he sought in his Vice Presidential nominee, and how he saw the nominee’s role in the new Administration. Obama chose an individual he had defeated in the primary phase, not someone he was dependent upon. Obama chose an individual who was not his father’s man but, if anything, a bit too much his own man.

Cheney’s influence, particularly during the first Dubya Administration, has been (to be diplomatic) historic, with disastrous consequences for the economy and national security. There is nothing to suggest that Obama is so beholden to Biden. Only that Obama has the self-knowledge and self-esteem to recognize what will best serve the country, and the self-confidence and maturity to exercise his own judgment and to choose a man with superior knowledge and experience to stand with him in the most important election in decades.

Finally, Bush has done grievous harm to the GOP. George W. was a cion that didn’t really take. Time will tell but, so far, Obama has all the makings of contributing his own unique attributes to the rejuvenation of a premier cru.