It’s hard for me to judge. Coming from Jersey and Southeast Pennsylvania, Joey Biden is somewhat of an institution to me. I currently live about 15 miles from the Delaware border. So, I already know Biden. I know his story and I know countless people just like him. His type of smart, loud-mouthed, opinionated personality is mass-produced in the Mid-Atlantic and we take pride in it. The only thing different about Joey is that he rose to the top. Most politicians around here buy their seats or come out of embarrassingly corrupt machines.
Now, we Mid-Atlantic loudmouths know that our routine doesn’t necessarily sell well in other areas of the country. People from the Midwest are much more polite, for example. So I don’t really know how Joe comes off. In these parts his shtick is just lovable (at least, if you’re not a Republican). But maybe Joey is a little too in-your-face for some people. I don’t know.
Biden talked about how his mother would force him to bloody bullies’ noses so he could walk down the street. There are a lot of mothers like that in these parts. Rep. Patrick Murphy had a father like that. Joey is a brawler who never backs down and always gets back up when he is decked. Maybe some people can’t relate to that.
From where I sit, Biden is the exact kind of guy you want by your side when trouble turns up. And I know a lot of Democrats are reassured by that. I also know that McCain would be nuts to send in a lightweight like Mitt Romney to debate Joe Biden. Romney doesn’t strike me as a man that gets up once he’s been decked. I think he runs home and cries. I think John McCain knows that.
I found it hilarious that McSame tried to upstage Biden’s speech by leaking that he had “decided” who his running mate would be. It didn’t seem to have the desired effect. I switched over to CNN just so see and even they didn’t fall for it. Only a passing mention was given.
I can’t wait to see Biden in a debate with McSame’s VP. It doesn’t matter who he picks, Biden will eat his children.
From the Chicago part of the midwest, I’d say Biden will make people a little more comfortable with our own Barak’s more cerebral persona. We like a fighter around here, too, and as I watched the speeches by the rest of the shortlist I had to wonder why it wasn’t obvious from the start that this is the perfect matchup, the best of all the possibilities. Forget the current polls and pundits: McCain simply can’t match the energy and purpose this pair lights up a room with. It’s all over for Bush’s twin.
Whomever the GOP picks for the VP nod is going to get killed by Biden in the VP debate…that’s a given at this point.
I’m Californian, but my folks are from Boston, so Biden’s “Go milk ’em, Joe!” mother’s comment is not unfamiliar. Sure, I was hoping for more, but it’s not unfamiliar.
BooMan, your comment about Romney getting decked and running home to mommy is pure joy to me. I agree completely. If McCain picks such a wimp as running mate, then, the GOP is doomed indeed. So who does that leave? Lieberman or that woman from Texas or that Huckleby guy? Gosh, what a list to choose from, a veritable ship of fools.
That squishing sound you hear is the Republican Titanic taking on more and more water. God grant that it disappear from view, well at least for this election.
It’s the only reason I’ve seen that makes sense to pick Kay B Hutchinson. The gentleman in Joe would be hard pressed to deliver the punch.
We live in the era of professed equality – if she steps into the ring like a man then she gets hit in the mouth like a man. Surely you don’t think she’d pull her punches – neither should Joe.
I think KBH would be the smart pick, but she’s no dummy. She can be governor if she wants, and she’ll take the surer bet. I think McCain’t is gonna be stuck with Romney.
I grew up in a tough loop of a subdivision in San Diego… no girls my age for 3 blocks, but plenty of tough young boys. The neighborhood bully took my kid brother’s skip rope away and was beating him with it. I didn’t like my brother, but family is family. So, I trotted up the block and saw the circle of kids egging on the bully. I punched him hard in the stomach and he went down flat… just as his mother drove by. She didn’t stop, but could clearly see her kid sprawled in the middle of somebody else’s driveway… at the hands of a girrrrrrrl. The bully got up and punched me in the stomach. I didn’t go down, but kept my feet and raised my fist again. They dispersed.
The bully came over after dinner, apologized, and carried my books for a week. No more trouble from that family of boys.
Sometimes you can avoid cocksure bullies, and sometimes you have to knock them down a peg or two. Even if you are only 13 and female and skinny. A good life lesson.
Somehow, I doubt if Hutchinson and Biden will engage in fisticuffs… but wouldn’t expect either of them to mince words, either.
And, yes, Mittens would go home to cry.
If I was McCain’s VP and female, I’d be offended if Biden held back because of my gender alone. The real danger in a female vp candidate is if she played the victim card and if the media bought into it. Even if she isn’t as tough as Ann Richards, somehow I doubt if she’d try to position herself as a weakling. Texan women don’t…. not if they want to succeed politically. Why belittle yourself?
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/09/texas_democrat.html
Being a native New Yorker, I can say that you mid-Atlantic types need to take a back seat when it comes to being in your face.
I include New Yorkers (and metro) in my definition of Mid-Atlantic. I’m from north/central Jersey, so I’m still getting used to this whole Philly thing.
What, they wouldn’t throw snowballs at Santa Claus in Brooklyn? 🙂
heh. I dunno. Philly does seem to have the most dangerous sports fans.
Wouldn’t that be hot pennies? 🙂
I am not sold biden. This is a hold your nose ticket. He is a credit card industry lacky and he accused the antiwar movement of being unpatriotic as recently as 2005. Has he apologized for this? Not to my knowledge. I am preparing for protests now. I don’t believe Obama will pull us out of the war anymore than the dems did.
So it’s Romney. McCain has many deficiencies on domestic politics and no one else fills that gap better than Romney. One debate is not going to be a cause of concern. The attack dog mode can also sometimes backfire, and create sympathy for the victim.
no worry here.
If it’s Romney I’ll be very, very surprised.
McCain’s weakness on domestic issues only becomes a weakness if he makes the idiotic mistake of campaigning on domestic issues. Other than that, the only place it comes up is in the debates and, well, the VP candidate isn’t much help in the presidential debates.
McCain’s REAL weakness is actually the same as Obama’s – he’s not a very good campaigner. He’s never really had much in the way of serious opposition before the 2000 presidential campaign and he got spanked hard there. Even here, he won not on the strength of his campaigning but on the fact that the rest of the field was a joke.
Plus, Biden attacks one of McCain’s strengths – the love of the media. Biden is almost as loved by the media bobbleheads as McCain.
So there’s no good reason for McCain to select Romney – the base doesn’t like him, undecided moderates don’t swoon at the thought of a Romney presidency, the press doesn’t like Romney, and Romney isn’t that great a campaigner (he’s not bad, but he’s handicapped by the fact that he’s fairly unlikable – he’s like a competent Giuliani in that regard). The one reason to take Romney would be to get donation dollars rolling in from his Wall Street cronies, but McCain is already taking public funding, so that advantage is blunted.
I mean, he could still pick Romney – McCain has shown that if there’s a bad choice to be made, he’s not afraid to be the one who takes it. But McCain should probably be looking for a good campaigner that the press actually likes (someone the press likes is automatically going to not scare the moderates, for the most part).
Well Clinton said a lot of dumb things in his lifetime, but one, it’s the economy, stupid, never fails to get people thinking. Maybe it is just basic selfishness that gets people worrying about themselves in the end, in the voting booth. Has any one heard any politician, Democratic or Republican, mention “the poor,” during this election?
We certainly have changed since the days of the “war on poverty.”
When was the last time a Democrat ticket with two northern liberals won?
Farther back than FDR. I’m pretty sure none of his veeps were from the North. Truman was from Missouri, Wallace from (I think) Iowa, Garner was from (I think) Tejas.
But, when we talk about northern tickets, we really mean the Northeast (New York, Massachusetts, etc). Obama’s from the Midwest and Biden’s from the Mid-Atlantic.
Delaware is actually a southern state.
So it’s not really a northern ticket.
That’s a good one, ‘Delaware is actually a southern state.’ Like southern Jersey.
Southern Jersey isn’t southern. It’s just nasty. But then, while I hear parts of the state are nice, all of the parts of Jersey I’ve seen were also nasty.
People always tell me to stop shitting on Jersey, but isn’t that what toilets are for?
I emerged from a toilet, evidently.
“Delaware is actually a southern state.”
Huh? Wha? Huh?
Even though he was rusty, I liked Biden’s speech and the media clearly loves the guy. I was concerned with some of his statements about Russia and Afghanistan.
Don’t assume that because midwesterners seem polite that they don’t like a figher. There have been firebreathing populists from this part of the country before. Biden’s advantage is that while he can get in your face, he does outrage well. As long as he keeps hitting on the blue collar Scranton schtick, and the train home every night, his approach is fine with us.
This North Dakota/Minnesota/Wisconsin* boy solidly agrees. I’m not entirely thrilled with Biden’s politics, but I’m delighted we’ve got someone in the VP slot whose not afraid to throw a punch or twelve. I think a lot of us culturally Scandinavian Northern types are really ready for that. Up here the build to anger burns long and slow, but once it goes off…wow!
*I seem to slowly be drifting East as I get older.
Interesting parallels come to mind for me.
Cheney was supposed to be the seasoned wise man on the ticket that smoothed out W’s inexperience and unwavering style. Made people comfortable with the choice
Obama is the more cerebral guy who will make people comfortable because he has Biden as pitbull and bodyguard.
I prefer the latter and hope given a choice Americans see the wisdom in that.
Regardless of who McCain picks as veep, he will position himself as the tough guy because that’s his strength.
Biden probably carried Wisconsin with the bloody nose comment. Or at least, he got my family on board.