I’ll confess I don’t know as much about Joe Biden as I’d like to (or as I’m sure I will). He’s struck me as a generally intelligent and informed Senator, sometimes a bit too clever for his own good (including the occasional speech plagiarism), but neither diabolically nefarious nor bright-shiny glad-handing. He’s a political animal, certainly, and he’s not the charismatic type that Obama is — but I think he will lend a certain measure of “okay, it’s not all unknowns and first-times” to the ticket, in a way that will calm the electorate (whether reasonable or not).
In short, it’s not an exciting choice, but it’s not a controversial one, either, and Obama himself is exciting enough as a candidate to not need to have someone who’s also a “celebrity”
As to the key question — how would I feel if he had to take over the White House as President — I don’t know that it’s something I have a strong opinion about pro, but really no con at all. And short of something like that happening, I think he’ll serve as an intelligent, useful advisor to Obama.
(That said, I’m mildly disappointed that my text message announcement of the decision never made it to my cell phone. *sigh*)
I am still shaking my head over this one.
But, I hope that this giant lurch even farther right will pay off in the general, when there are some great choices that were still on the table that would have shored up the Dem base better.
I really don’t get all the fuss some folks on the left are making about Biden. Sure, he’s no uber-Progressive, but he’s not exactly the second coming of Ronald Reagan (or even a moderate Republican for that matter).
It’s like they’d rather see Obama pick someone far to the left of the country and lose than a mainstream Democrat and win.
I think part of it is where you consider the Democratic base to be (esp. in relationship to your own stance), the degree to which you think the center is in play (and your opinion of where that center may have drifted over the years). I think it’s also a matter of principles vs. compromise (and the times when it’s important to stick to one or the other).