Friday, August 22, 2008

'Toontime: Lesser Demons

[credit: Pat Oliphant]
Wackydoodle got it wrong, but then it is hard to see how the choice of Senator Joe Biden as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate helps Obama win crucial swing states like Indiana or Virginia. Delaware is hardly in play, and the choice is a confession that Obama needs someone at his side with more foreign policy and national security experience than he has. Biden has been in the Senate for 36 years and chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On the negative side, Biden has a tendency to plant his own verbal minefields. He voted for the war in Iraq, claiming the United States had no choice but to eliminate Saddam Hussein. Then he expressed regret for his war vote while campaigning in the primaries. Biden has a major corporate supporter in MBNA, a Delaware based credit card company recently purchased by Bank of America (the company hired his son after law school). He voted with Republicans to pass a bankruptcy reform bill that favored credit card lenders by making it more difficult for debtors to qualify for relief. Biden has accepted over $5 million in donations from lobbyists while Obama has made a campaign issue of not accepting donations from registered federal lobbyists. Its not a perfect world, but Obama's pick sends a clear message: we got the beef!