10:24 pm
Veepstakes: Biden His Time
Joe Biden is claiming he’s “not the guy,” but my gut says he’s the One one. This morning during a visit to Orlando, Obama dropped Biden’s name. And this evening, in North Carolina, he talked about what he wants in a VP:
Let me tell you first what I won’t do. I won’t hand over my energy policy to my vice president, without knowing necessarily what he’s doing. I won’t have my vice president engineering my foreign policy for me. The buck will stop with me, because I will be the president. My vice president. . .also will be a member of the executive branch, he won’t be one of these 4th branches of government where he thinks he’s above the law.
But here’s what I do want from my vice president. I want somebody who has integrity, who’s in politics for the right reasons. I want somebody who is independent. Somebody who is able to say to me, ‘you know what, Mr. President, I think you’re wrong on this and here’s why’ and will. . .help me think through major issues and consult with me, would be a key advisor. I want somebody who is capable of being president and who I would trust to be president. That’s the first criteria for vice president.
And the final thing is I want a [vice] president who shares with me a passion to make the lives of the American people better than they are right now. I want someone who is not in it just because they want to have their name up in lights or end up being president. I want somebody who is mad right now, that people are losing their jobs. And is mad right now that people have seen their incomes decline, and want to rebuild the middle class in this country. That’s the kind of person that I want; somebody who in their gut knows where they came from and believes that we have to grow this country from the bottom up.
Think about the rumored finalists: Biden, Sebelius, Bayh, Kaine. Three of four are mild-mannered milquetoast. The fourth is a fire-eater. Guess which one?
Of course, Biden also is a classic example of someone whose greatest strength is also his greatest vulnerability. In his case, it’s his mouth. And you can bet that this salvo from the great Andy Borowitz is just the beginning:
In an indication that he expects to be Barack Obama’s vice-presidential pick, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del) has begun writing a 50,000-word acceptance speech, aides to the senator confirmed today. The address, which Mr. Biden has been working on around the clock, is an abridged version of a 200,000-word acceptance speech that Mr. Biden wrote when he ran for President in 1988.
Nonetheless, I think he’s the guy, his own protests not withstanding. And if I’m right, the McCain campaign should start worrying. No one out there is more fierce, and no one is a more able competitor.
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