Yepsen: Consider Biden for No. 2 spot (gateley is still voting 'no' on this)

[gateley]

Two things are obvious after last week's Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama debate in Pennsylvania:

- Neither seems likely to pick the other as a running mate. Much as party unity should require it, it's hard to see how the two could have a trusted working relationship.

- Neither may be able to defeat John McCain. As a result of the trashing Clinton and Obama have given each other in recent weeks, polls show the Republican doing well in a number of battleground states against either Democrat.

snip

One name fits both bills: Joe Biden.

The Delaware senator would make a perfect running mate for either Clinton or Obama, and a number of party pros are saying just that.

snip

Biden would be a perfect running mate for either Clinton or Obama. First, he'd be acceptable to the supporters of the losing candidate.

Second, he'd be the perfect campaign pit bull. He's quick with the jab and can serve red meat, things a vice-presidential nominee must do.

Need someone to get in McCain's face over the war? The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee knows the difference between the Shia and the Sunni. That ability will be especially important to Obama, who many voters think is inexperienced.

Personally, Biden's been vetted in two national campaigns. His 1988 transgression - lifting without attribution the words of a British politician - is a trivial sin by today's standards. He has grit and gravitas. He's not rich. He's not known as a womanizer. He would appeal to white men, who despite all the chatter about women, minorities and young voters, are a constituency Democrats needs to do more to attract.

Biden does have his limits. He has to be careful not to talk too much. And he doesn't come from a big state. But Biden showed in the 2008 campaign he can shorten his speeches when he must. And nobody "delivers" a state anymore. That's old politics.

Here's the entire piece: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080420/OPINION01/804200305/-1/NEWS04

[WheelWalker]

1. The Village Idiot will support JB's decision should the offer be made.

[gateley]

2. The Village Idiot is a bigger person than I.

Oh, okay. I'll support whatever he wants to do, too. I just wish he wouldn't.

That being said, it's not as though he's been offered (that we know of). :hi:

[Muttocracy]

3. where the heck was their endorsement in December then?!?!?!

:grr:

Then it could have made a difference!

[Tashca]

4. Not a Yepsen fan....never have been.

With that said ..his points are right on target....and actually quite easy to see.
I am still torn as to whether I think he would do better in this position.
Like VI says...I too will support his decision whatever that may be.

NOW......as far as the (trying to think of the proper explicative here) Des Moines Register goes. I have not purchased or looked at a copy since that choose Clinton to endorse. I was literally holding my breathe waiting for them to choose Joe. When that didn't happen I was immediately let down. I know not getting that endorsement would be hard to overcome and probably impossible. I feel very confident in saying that if Joe had gotten that endorsement instead of Clinton....we would be looking at something very different as far as the race goes....

This article is almost a bitter irony for me........

I'm just going to say it.....they screwed up and I'm wondering if they are now figuring it out...

[jillan]

6. As an outsider looking in, I got the feeling that Yepsen became more

sold on Biden as time went on.

Didn't he write an op-ed praising Biden??

I remember the disappointment when the DMR didn't endorse him.

Everyone went for the story - the first African
American vs the first woman. They got what they wanted...two mediocre candidates.

[Tashca]

7. Your probably right

I had forgotten he did come out as being disappointed with the endorsement.

I just saw the article and felt instant bitterness toward the DMR. I reacted out of emotion instead of taking a deep breathe and reacting with logic. :blush:

Thank you for pointing this out!!

I am getting so frustrated with both of these candidates...I will support whomever the nominee is....I am just so tired of voting against someone. I have voted ever since 76. That year I voted against Ford and not so much for Carter. I voted twice against Reagan....against the Bush's and so on. I would love to go to the polls someday and vote FOR someone and not against the other. Maybe things will change by November..

:shrug:

[jillan]

8. I'm frustrated too.

I'm rooting for Hillary, not because I think she is the best, just because I like her better than Obama. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't cringe from what comes out of her campaign.
But - I cringe less from her.

It's sad.

[PatSeg]

5. All excellent points

But alas, I just can't see Biden in the number two spot. He is too much his own person to be a spokesperson for someone else.

[gateley]

9. Always been my feeling, too --

that it's not in his nature to curtail expressing what he really feels, and that he'd be constrained being a spokesperson for an administration.

But it's got to be a heady prospect, nonetheless -- VP of the United States of America.

[ribrepin]

10. Let's face it...Bill Clinton will be the real Vice President if it's Hillary

Can't see Joe playing third fiddle in a Clinton administration. Joe should stay in the Senate.

[gateley]

11. Joe specifically addressed that

when asked if he'd be VP in Hillary's WH. He basically said what you did --

[WheelWalker]

12. I'm beginning to think they're both senile....Bill & Hill, that is.

[gateley]

13. Some of the stuff they're doing is questionable.

Getting backlash for neg campaigning, for example, apologizing, then doing it again. And again.

Hillary at least is sticking pretty close to the script/approach they feel will work (rightly or wrongly), but Bill.... We're getting to know him better than we did during 8 years of his presidency and the intervening years since then.

[Eurobabe]

14. I think they have some serious borderline personality disorders.

[WheelWalker]

15. Are you saying they are on the cusp/edge of having

personality disorders, or they have Borderline Personality Disorder? If the latter, I couldn't agree with you more.

[Eurobabe]

16. I was not clear, they HAVE personality disorders.

Narcissism and delusions of grandeur.

[WheelWalker]

17. "If you're not with us, you're against us". Yes, that all fits "Borderline Personality Disorder."