August 23, 2008
What Joe Biden Does for Obama (Bernie Quigley)
At first glance it appears like The Beatles, after a rousing start, suddenly hired Perry Como to sing vocals. Media is stuck in conditioned response; Obama picked Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) for his vice president for his experience, especially for his foreign policy experience.
Yes, Joe Biden has experience, but it is in the wrong area. Two senators on the ticket lessens the kind of experience an executive needs. Senators discuss, ruminate, advise or don’t. Senators talk (whereas presidents do), and the more experience they have, the more they seem to talk.
A first-tier candidate should have management experience — it is primarily a management position and problems will be solved by management abilities and strategies. The best choice in this regard might have been Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas and one of the best governors of the country, or Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania. But Obama did the right thing in choosing Biden as his VP.
The Los Angeles Times and most everybody else suggest Biden was chosen because Obama was “caught off guard” on the Georgia invasion and thus picked someone with “foreign policy experience.” But in these matters Biden, who voted for the invasion of Iraq and parallels the neocon playbook in Georgia, personifies experience with neither intuition nor judgment. But in my observation this past year, Obama doesn’t stay off guard for long, and he is not off guard here.
In short hindsight, it is interesting that Obama said just days ago that he would take a vice president who would “challenge him” and trailed off saying that he wouldn’t take a vice president to tell him what to do in foreign policy. It is nowhere near the VP’s role except in the cloud-cuckoo-land of Cheney and Co. Here, Obama is the adult in charge.
Anyway, Obama has friends in higher places on foreign policy; Sam Nunn from the old school and, in a great and historic moment of American karma, Susan Eisenhower, who in the last 14 years has shown the wisdom, sensitivity and nuance of her esteemed ancestor. She has this week left the Republican Party to help Obama.
Had Obama wanted to continue the new generation theme he would have picked Chet Edwards, the representative from Texas, recommended by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). Again, not much in management experience, but a bright new face and some good instincts. But Obama is not so narrow as to be an exclusively generational avatar for rising Millennials — as the Clintons and Al Gore proposed to be and pretty much were for Boomers. He is the favorite of the rising generation but he transcends generationality.
Obama brings more a change of theme rather than a collectivized shift of blood and gene pool; it is a show that can work for everyone — much as Ronald Reagan brought a change of theme; a distinctive change of political culture to something quite new: something from the West; something from the air and mountains, it seemed, rather than from the entrenched earth temples of the upper Atlantic regions. And then Reagan brought in George Bush the First to show that clearly, he intended to amend the tradition in a completely new way and advance it, not destroy it — the usual generational path of the naïve and inexperienced. Obama has done exactly the same. He brings in an entirely new show but in bringing in Biden as VP he holds the rope to his tradition and promises to amend it; to nurture it as one does in a marriage; something old and something new; an old house with new rooms.
Bush I, in that relationship to Reagan, would not take the spotlight from where it needed to be, on Ronald Reagan. He would be a funeral-goer vice president and I expect Biden will be too.
Obama is the Fourth Man in the four-generational sequence of post-war power: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, Obama. He needs to stand alone and bring with him a strong line of the best and the brightest while his VP stands aside with grace and in admiration.
And what a start: Caroline Kennedy, Oprah, Susan Eisenhower; the Three Celestial Sisters. Obama and his campaign have shown professionalism and a deft touch not seen here since James A. Baker ran things for the Reagan administration. As a management project, I believe Obama will bring in a great front office, as Reagan did. Starting off, we are seeing Sam Nunn as senior foreign policy adviser and a sea change of America’s presence and perception abroad. And at home an Obama Quaternity of Mike Bloomberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathleen Sebelius and Ed Rendell to rebuild the cities and rebuild our country.
Next week Joe Lieberman will speak at the Republican convention but Arnold Schwarzenegger, the star of the last Republican show who spent a million bucks to attend and entertained the burghers with quips about “economic girlie-mans,” will not. Too busy fighting over the California budget, don’t cha know. It is a good trade, Lieberman for Arnold. He will cross over to Obama as Eisenhower has and maybe he will even bring with him his interesting and cool friends like George Schultz and Warren Buffett.
This is a big front line. Joe Biden, like Bush I to Reagan or Dan Quayle to Bush I, won’t steal the show.
Visit Mr. Quigley's website at http://quigleyblog.blogspot.com.
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Now, if someone could teach the two of them not to say dumb things that make good quotes for bloggers. By the way, comparing Obama to Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan is an insult to those three. He has neither the experience or appeal of the three to whom you made the comparison. I don't believe any of those three downed America overseas or claimed Americans were bitter bigots. The comparison is ridiculous.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — August 23, 2008 @ 11:28 am
Great choice! Joe "the plagerist" Biden. The bigmouth who criticized Obama for months during the primaries. I guess Obama realized he needed to find someone with more experiece than he has. At least Biden can show Obama where the bathroom is in the White House.
Comment by John Simmons — August 23, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
Now we got two big bags of hot air to cope with.Biden hasn,t contributed anything to America since he,s been in Washington.If Edwards hadn,t gotten caught porking Reile he probably would have been Obamas's choice.Next week we can all watch the wheels come off the Democratic party.
Anybody heard from Slick Willy lately?
Comment by Teerry Gee — August 23, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
Excellent post Bernie-
You did forget one thing, Biden is the PERFECT attack dog Obama needed, but please don't compare him to Quayle.
McCain is the 2008 version of Bob Dole..Who will he pick?
McCain-Lieberman.two old geezers.LOL!!!!!!!
Comment by Theard — August 23, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
Theard, you forgot that it's hard to beat Biden in the old geezer department, so I think he takes that issue of the table.
Change? With a guy who's been in the Senate since the Nixon administration? Hope? For what, no new plagiarism discoveries? A consistent position on Iraq? The guy voted for the war, which is the same sin that cost Hillary so much, and on top of it he ran around screaming that without his magical Iraq division plan nothing would work. And yet it's working. Biden is a worthless, colorless, other than in his gaffes and the diahrreah of the mouth, pick. Obama will now go the way of McGovern, which is richly deserved. And he could've been elected if he picked Hillary.
Comment by Igor R. — August 23, 2008 @ 11:37 pm
No need to defend Biden, conservatives have been praising him, even McCain opined that the Obama-Biden would be "formidable".
I see that you are following your talking points Igor:
Surge is working/worked!
He should have picked HRC! Pat B, Kristol and others were on TV yesterday blathering the same nonesense.
Wait until Biden starts tearing into McCain lol.
Ball is in your corner…Who will McCain pick? willard? Pawlenty? Lieberman? or Jindal the exorcist?
Comment by Theard — August 24, 2008 @ 12:54 pm
I was watching news (Fox) and heard mention that Biden may have gone to Muslim school too. In fact they think Biden may be involved with cultist activities.
I agree with Igor, McCain probably single-handedly saved America by advocating on behalf of the surge. The surge IS working. Now what does Barack Hussein have to say? Cut and Run? Hell, let's keep going on to Iran.
I'm with Simmons; whoever heard of Biden anyhow? Biden wants to raise everones taxes and beleives in global warming.
If both Biden and Obama are trained muslims, then what? A sneak attack from the inside? We're fighting the global war on terror.
It's time to reurn the WH to true Christians;
Spread the word to everyone you know;
"McCain in 2008″
Comment by RealConservative — August 25, 2008 @ 1:16 am
The conservative and neocon Clinton reaction is fantastic. Their entire playbook is based on one or more Clinton poisoning the political process. Is there life after Clintons? Clinton/Bush are symbiotes; one goes, the other goes - it is like Holmes and Moriarty going after the cliff together.
Comment by Bernie Quigley — August 25, 2008 @ 5:04 am
You should read the conservative playbook Quigley. It simply relies on Obama poisoning himself and he's done a mighty good job so far. Look at the Democratic Party. They rejected experience in Biden, they rejected a nothingness gender based campaign from Hillary Clinton, they rejected amnesty in Bill Richardson and made the questionable choice of selecting someone with the middle name of Hussein who puts down America at every opportunity while labeling large swaths of Americans as bitter bigots. What playbook does that mentality come out of? It's all too funny. The Republican playbook now can simply be sit back and watch the fun as Biden and Obama out dumb each other is a race to total stupidity.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — August 25, 2008 @ 11:07 am
Obama has class. To choose someone that criticizes him to be V.P., and then to not put up a fight about someone who wants him dead speaking at the convention shows this campaign is about a new thing. Change.
Comment by Yvonne — August 25, 2008 @ 11:39 am
Yvonne, yes Obama has class. To befriend two admitted and unrepentent terrorists, and not to put up a fight with a preacher who blames the US government for inventing AIDS to kill black people, shows hope, change, class, and everything else good under the sun. It doesn't help in winning elections, but it keeps the cultists like you mesmerized.
Comment by Igor R. — August 25, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
Class doesn't cut it when you're faced with real world issues like Russia-Georgia. His "class" got him a round of golf and a "kum-bah=ya" statement while McCain addressed the issue with tangible recommended actions.
He knows change very well…just watch….his positions will change…again.
Comment by ObamaNOT — August 26, 2008 @ 7:28 am