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Hey Joe
In life's deepest and darkest hours, some search for Bible passages or quotes from classic authors.
Invariably, I either seek out a song lyric or a sports analogy - depending on which pops into my cranium first.
When I was able to process the news that Joe Biden was tabbed to be Barack Obama's running mate, I thought of the Fleetwood Mac song "Dreams" in relation to Hillary Clinton ("players only love you when they're playing") and then shifted to a good 'ol sports analogy for Biden.
The selection, while probably not as sound as choosing Clinton and reeling in her solid base of support in vital battleground states, makes senses and reminded me of what I've seen too many times to count in the sport of ice hockey.
The star player - in this case, Obama - is being rendered ineffective because his finesse style is being impeded by some rough play, bordering on being outside the rules but going ignored by the officials, by the opposition.
So the coach shuffles the lines and, on the the star's next shift, he is joined by one of his bigger and meaner teammates to ... uh ... straighten things out a bit. Sometimes it takes a fight, other times it take a big check or two into the boards, but the point is made and the star can get back to controlling the game without intimidation.
Biden, being billed as a "scrappy kid from Scranton," has fought for what he believes is right since he was first elected to the senate in the early 1970s.
He has had some challenges along the way but has emerged stronger for it. We're talking about a man who lost his wife and infant daughter in a car crash shortly after he was elected senator and was sworn in at the bedside of one of his sons who barely survived the crash.
Biden worked his way up to the point that he felt comfortable running for president in 1988, but was sidetracked by a plagiarism scandal that was followed by near-fatal brain aneurysms. He called that whole episode of his life a "train wreck," but since put the train back on track to become one of the most respected senators - particularly on foreign affairs (he once made a fool out of John McCain while arguing over Bosnia in 1993) - in Washington D.C. (a place he began commuting to as a devoted single father and still continued the tradition).
Biden is known to have loose lips. He has given us gems like his shot at Rudy Giuliani, saying the former New York mayor and failed GOP presidential candidate only utters sentences with "a noun, a verb and 9/11." But there is a risk, just like the hockey tough guy taking a bad penalty that could lead to a power play goal for the other team, that these loose lips could sink the ship that is an Obama campaign showing some Titanic-like tendencies lately.
But ... it is worth the gamble.
And while I remain a semi-loyalist to Clinton, especially considering how many key states she claimed, I can see where not choosing her helps Obama retain some dignity as the process moves forward.
Picking Clinton would almost equate to him almost conceding that she really won the primaries.
The Republicans are going to try and do their best to have a field day with the choice of Biden, but they were going to do that with anyone (just like we Dems will when McCain tries to trump Obama's selection of Biden).
And choosing Biden made more sense than Obama picking a woman other than Clinton, like Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, or a milk-toast type (Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas).
Biden brings some of Clinton's qualities, therefore some of her base, to the equation. He is an Irish-Catholic (something Clinton isn't) and is from a working class background. He is originally from Pennsylvania - Scranton, to be exact - and has often been dubbed "Pennsylvania's third senator." So he helps here in our swing state, as well as vital Ohio and surely in Michigan and Illinois.
However, Clinton would have that done that as well and also been a bigger help in Florida and with women voters in all states, but we have to let it go. The truth is that if she really wanted the No. 2 spot, she probably could've worked harder - publicly and behind the scenes - to procure it. She clearly didn't, choosing instead to go into hiding and only to reemerge saying all the right things about Obama and now Biden.
Biden, like Clinton and most other veteran politicians, has some skeletons in his closet (not that McCain doesn't ... Re: Keating affair). The most troublesome, and open to swift-boating, are connections with some shady businessmen in Mississippi.
His son, Hunter, is a Washington lobbyist, but it is hard to believe the McCain campaign will want to go there too much given McCain's ... cough, cough ... dalliances with lobbyists. Moreover, Biden has another son about to go Iraq with his national guard unit.
Records also show that Biden has received large sums of money from organized groups of lawyers of the years. I can tell you, first-hand, what that is all about. My wife is a bankruptcy attorney and Delaware is the Mecca for bankruptcy filings because of the some favorable laws. The lawyers want to keep this gravy train rolling and Biden, let's be honest, is merely taking care of his constituency. Anything different, would be like a senator from West Virginia working against the coal industry.
Biden and Obama will have to reconcile some fundamental differences on abortion and they are not quite aligned on health care, as Biden stops short of seeing universal health care as a the answer.
And some of the things Biden said to and about Obama will need to be smoothed over before they get mangled out of context by some Karl Rove-like rodent.
According to the Web site Politico.com, the choice of Biden tells us five things about Obama:
1) He is fixing for a fight.
G2's View: That much is clear, and it is the smart move against the cheap-shot artists on the other side. We'll have to see if that means Biden will do Obama's fighting for him (like the protector in ice hockey) or alongside him.
2) He's more conventional than advertised.
G2's View: No duh!
3) He's insecure about security.
G2's View: I think it's safer to say that Obama is insecure about how he is going to be perceived on security by voters with low to medium IQs.
4) He is courting working-class whites, feeling secure with blacks in the south.
G2's View: The choice of John Edwards as a running mater netted John Kerry a zero gain, in the south or anywhere else, in 2004. This makes more sense. Let's just hope the votes aren't counted Jim Crow style down yonder.
5) He doesn't hold a grudge.
G2's View: You can't. You have to win by any means necessary, even if it means playing a little dirty with a tough guy in tow on the ice.
Invariably, I either seek out a song lyric or a sports analogy - depending on which pops into my cranium first.
When I was able to process the news that Joe Biden was tabbed to be Barack Obama's running mate, I thought of the Fleetwood Mac song "Dreams" in relation to Hillary Clinton ("players only love you when they're playing") and then shifted to a good 'ol sports analogy for Biden.
The selection, while probably not as sound as choosing Clinton and reeling in her solid base of support in vital battleground states, makes senses and reminded me of what I've seen too many times to count in the sport of ice hockey.
The star player - in this case, Obama - is being rendered ineffective because his finesse style is being impeded by some rough play, bordering on being outside the rules but going ignored by the officials, by the opposition.
So the coach shuffles the lines and, on the the star's next shift, he is joined by one of his bigger and meaner teammates to ... uh ... straighten things out a bit. Sometimes it takes a fight, other times it take a big check or two into the boards, but the point is made and the star can get back to controlling the game without intimidation.
Biden, being billed as a "scrappy kid from Scranton," has fought for what he believes is right since he was first elected to the senate in the early 1970s.
He has had some challenges along the way but has emerged stronger for it. We're talking about a man who lost his wife and infant daughter in a car crash shortly after he was elected senator and was sworn in at the bedside of one of his sons who barely survived the crash.
Biden worked his way up to the point that he felt comfortable running for president in 1988, but was sidetracked by a plagiarism scandal that was followed by near-fatal brain aneurysms. He called that whole episode of his life a "train wreck," but since put the train back on track to become one of the most respected senators - particularly on foreign affairs (he once made a fool out of John McCain while arguing over Bosnia in 1993) - in Washington D.C. (a place he began commuting to as a devoted single father and still continued the tradition).
Biden is known to have loose lips. He has given us gems like his shot at Rudy Giuliani, saying the former New York mayor and failed GOP presidential candidate only utters sentences with "a noun, a verb and 9/11." But there is a risk, just like the hockey tough guy taking a bad penalty that could lead to a power play goal for the other team, that these loose lips could sink the ship that is an Obama campaign showing some Titanic-like tendencies lately.
But ... it is worth the gamble.
And while I remain a semi-loyalist to Clinton, especially considering how many key states she claimed, I can see where not choosing her helps Obama retain some dignity as the process moves forward.
Picking Clinton would almost equate to him almost conceding that she really won the primaries.
The Republicans are going to try and do their best to have a field day with the choice of Biden, but they were going to do that with anyone (just like we Dems will when McCain tries to trump Obama's selection of Biden).
And choosing Biden made more sense than Obama picking a woman other than Clinton, like Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, or a milk-toast type (Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas).
Biden brings some of Clinton's qualities, therefore some of her base, to the equation. He is an Irish-Catholic (something Clinton isn't) and is from a working class background. He is originally from Pennsylvania - Scranton, to be exact - and has often been dubbed "Pennsylvania's third senator." So he helps here in our swing state, as well as vital Ohio and surely in Michigan and Illinois.
However, Clinton would have that done that as well and also been a bigger help in Florida and with women voters in all states, but we have to let it go. The truth is that if she really wanted the No. 2 spot, she probably could've worked harder - publicly and behind the scenes - to procure it. She clearly didn't, choosing instead to go into hiding and only to reemerge saying all the right things about Obama and now Biden.
Biden, like Clinton and most other veteran politicians, has some skeletons in his closet (not that McCain doesn't ... Re: Keating affair). The most troublesome, and open to swift-boating, are connections with some shady businessmen in Mississippi.
His son, Hunter, is a Washington lobbyist, but it is hard to believe the McCain campaign will want to go there too much given McCain's ... cough, cough ... dalliances with lobbyists. Moreover, Biden has another son about to go Iraq with his national guard unit.
Records also show that Biden has received large sums of money from organized groups of lawyers of the years. I can tell you, first-hand, what that is all about. My wife is a bankruptcy attorney and Delaware is the Mecca for bankruptcy filings because of the some favorable laws. The lawyers want to keep this gravy train rolling and Biden, let's be honest, is merely taking care of his constituency. Anything different, would be like a senator from West Virginia working against the coal industry.
Biden and Obama will have to reconcile some fundamental differences on abortion and they are not quite aligned on health care, as Biden stops short of seeing universal health care as a the answer.
And some of the things Biden said to and about Obama will need to be smoothed over before they get mangled out of context by some Karl Rove-like rodent.
According to the Web site Politico.com, the choice of Biden tells us five things about Obama:
1) He is fixing for a fight.
G2's View: That much is clear, and it is the smart move against the cheap-shot artists on the other side. We'll have to see if that means Biden will do Obama's fighting for him (like the protector in ice hockey) or alongside him.
2) He's more conventional than advertised.
G2's View: No duh!
3) He's insecure about security.
G2's View: I think it's safer to say that Obama is insecure about how he is going to be perceived on security by voters with low to medium IQs.
4) He is courting working-class whites, feeling secure with blacks in the south.
G2's View: The choice of John Edwards as a running mater netted John Kerry a zero gain, in the south or anywhere else, in 2004. This makes more sense. Let's just hope the votes aren't counted Jim Crow style down yonder.
5) He doesn't hold a grudge.
G2's View: You can't. You have to win by any means necessary, even if it means playing a little dirty with a tough guy in tow on the ice.
posted by Gordon Glantz at
10:34 PM
5 Comments:
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Joe and Hil?? Now that would have a certain ring. PA natives and Scranton no less. Well, I don't see that in the near future. Barack and Joe (notice the first name usage) will put up a good fight in November.
Hey G2: You woulda been better off calling this entry Tumbling Dice, because Obama is surely rolling them with the choice of Biden. He might be the safest of the non-Hillary picks but she was the one that woulda helped the most.
Biden - Change you can believe in??? Biden has been in Washington for years. I think Obama's pick for a running mate is his very obvious attempt to overcome his deficiencies for the job.
Gordy...Last night's speakers were excellent. Tonight??? As a Republican I will be listening because I am wondering what type of person she is and what we would have gained/not gained if she were selected to run for VP or PRES. if she won. Did you notice where McCain's wife is now and who she is traveling with ??? Maybe he is the VP Candidate on the Rep. Ticket. Keep writing/listening it really is great to have something other than reruns on TV/Newspapers fillers.
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