Today’s local papers do the pro forma article on what local Dems think of Obama’s VP choice of Joe Biden. I like Biden, I had him ranked in my top three Democratic picks in fantasy presidential football. Biden has a real track record on foreign policy that fits within the pragmatist framework that doesn’t rely on hope. Here’s Biden in early 2007:
Joe Biden said about Cheney; “every single person out there that is of any consequence knows the vice president doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Biden went on to say:
I can’t be more blunt than that. He has yet to be right one single time on Iraq. Name me one single time he’s been correct.
It’s about time we stopped listening to that ideological rhetoric and that “bin Laden” and the rest. Bin Laden isn’t the issue here. Bin Laden will become the issue. The issue is there’s a civil war, Chris. I said way back in November last year, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, I said, “Does anyone support using American troops to fight a civil war? I don’t, and I don’t think the American people do. But if we fail to force a political consensus, that’s exactly what we will have.”
That’s what we have. That’s what the president has to deal with. And he’s doing it the exact wrong way. And he’s not listening to his military. He’s not listening to his old secretaries of state. He’s not listening to his old friends. He’s not listening to anybody but Cheney, and Cheney is dead-wrong.” source: Fox News Transcript
However, from a campaign strategy standpoint, I don’t think Biden will add anything to the electoral math that Obama would need to win the presidency. Which means that McCain could carpe diem his way to a really bold statement that would rock the political world.
McCain could pick Hillary as his VP.
Oh it could be so problematic for the base Republicans. They have so much invested in anti-Clintonism that that entire think tanks would melt like the Wicked with of the West in the Wizard of Oz. But you can be sure that they won’t be voting for Obama anytime soon, so the risk there is minimal.
The bigger pie of voters are the people of the purple nation. That is if you believe in purple. The GOP and Democratic Party want you to believe that we are all shades of red and blue. Either or. Black or white. Purple is just another way of saying most of the country is many shades of gray. Purple people are the kinda, sorta, maybe people. Bipartisanship is merely a concept. Nonpartisanship is where purple wants to be.
Hillary as McCain’s VP pick would set political punditry on its head. A Republican old guy and Democratic woman on the same ticket would create real change in Washington. Suddenly neocentrism would be in vogue. McCain would reemerge as the maverick of 2000. The political party hacks on both sides would be seething. But Americans would be cheering.
But would McCain do it?
His campaign surely must be thinking about it. The LaTimes provides evidence:
Well, it didn’t take long for the campaign of Sen. John McCain to bring his good friend Hillary Clinton into the confrontational mix.
Both senators are on the Armed Services Committee and, as The Ticket wrote back in June, McCain was among the first to befriend Clinton when she first arrived in that nearly all-male body in 2001.
Neither attacked the other during the harsh winter primary season.
And, in fact, as The Ticket noted back in June when Clinton dropped out of the Democratic race, McCain’s website posted an immediate tribute to her tenacity and commitment, familiarly titled “Hillary Out.”
It took Sen. Barack Obama’s website two days to post the same kind of acknowledgement.
Moments ago, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Republican’s campaign released a new commercial. Like the one put out 21 hours ago featuring Joe Biden, the Democrats’ new vice presidential pick, this one also uses the words of Democrats to attack members of their own party.
In that first GOP ad after Biden was picked (See two videos down below), he was shown talking about his new running mate’s inexperience, a claim the Democrats now attribute to merely primary politics, and about his regard for McCain.
This new Sunday ad is titled “Passed Over.” Aimed clearly at the 18 million disappointed Democrats who voted for her during the long primary season, the ad asks why she was passed over for the No. 2 spot?
It shows Clinton and says:
“She won millions of votes.
“But isn’t on his ticket.
“Why?
“For speaking the truth.
“On his plans:
HILLARY CLINTON: “You never hear the specifics.”
ANNCR: “On the Rezko scandal:
HILLARY CLINTON: “We still don’t have a lot of answers about Senator Obama.”
ANNCR: “On his attacks:
HILLARY CLINTON: “Senator Obama’s campaign has become increasingly negative.”
ANNCR: “The truth hurt.
“And Obama didn’t like it.
The electoral math is all about voter blocs and how things play out in states that are very much on the purple agenda. Swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania where the voters are salt of the earth kinda, sorta, maybe people. Most pundits are stating that McCain will pick Mitt Romney as his VP. In that event the VP spot for both candidates fades into obscurity.
