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(s)Elections
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Title: Commentary: Obama wrong to spurn Hillary, pick Biden
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/08/rollins.convention/index.html
Published: Sep 8, 2008
Author: Ed Rollins
Post Date: 2008-09-08 14:14:56 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 284
Comments: 15

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Ten days ago, Sen. Joe Biden was the most brilliant vice presidential pick imaginable. He was going to add the experience and foreign policy credential that Sen. Barack Obama's thin resume was missing.

The so-called expert commentators were arguing that blue-collar Joe was going to guarantee Pennsylvania (because he was born in Scranton) and other states and get Catholic voters because he is a pro-choice Catholic.

I guess they forgot that Joe didn't do so well with Iowa Catholics (23 percent of the population) when he campaigned there for more than a year in the Democratic caucus race. But then getting less than 1 percent of the vote and coming in fifth place showed he didn't do real well with any voter group in Iowa. Nor did he do well anywhere else, other than Delaware.

Then, after Sen. John McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, people laughed and said Biden was going to wipe the floor with Palin in the vice presidential debate. Now, after her incredible convention speech, Biden is saying that he's the underdog because he's not a very good debater.

If Obama had done the smart thing, he would have picked Sen. Hillary Clinton for vice president. If he had, he would have united his party for sure and energized his base.

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He just couldn't do it and maybe thought he didn't need to do it. He was wrong. That choice would have meant that McCain probably wouldn't have picked Palin. And if McCain had picked anybody else from his shortlist, the Republican convention would have been boring, and the party's base would not have been motivated.

The one thing we know for sure -- the selection of Biden did the least to enhance any ticket since George H.W. Bush picked Dan Quayle back in 1988. This is turning out to be another election the Democrats were convinced they couldn't lose. So far, the selection of Palin has been a game-changer and has energized my party like no one since Ronald Reagan did four decades ago.

The polls are back to even again. The only difference is the Republicans now have a communicator to match Obama and the Democrats have on their ticket an older veteran of Washington politics to match McCain's experience. The reformer Obama who was going to be the candidate of change is now running with Mr. D.C. establishment.

McCain, the maverick who is surrounded and advised by the D.C. establishment, has somehow picked the real reformer who has altered the Alaska political landscape by throwing out the establishment "good old boys" of both parties.

The tens of millions of Americans who watched on television got a visual view of who makes up the two parties (or at least the delegates). The Democrats had many people of color, women, union members, young and energetic folks dressed casually and having a great time: crying, yelling, cheering, singing, dancing. Many are the workers and teachers and organizers who want change.

Republicans were older, overwhelmingly white, men and women (many as old as me) and some young who looked old, in silly outfits or suits and ties with fancy jewelry and big hair, cheering, yelling, crying and trying to dance and also having a great time. They are the businessmen and the producers (who have much to protect) and through their efforts have made America a better place.

I saw more Veterans of Foreign Wars hats and political buttons from past conventions than I thought still existed. And God love them all, the Democrats and Republicans for still participating and enjoying it. But they each represent different Americas and very different ideologies. And though they don't define it the same, they both want change. iReport.com: Are you still undecided? Tell us why

Judging only from the rhetoric of the conventions, I don't know what either party really wants other than the big house that sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Both are going to cut taxes; both are going to have new programs.

By the end of McCain's speech, he was arguing we all need to do something meaningful with our lives to make our country a better place: to become a teacher, join the military, enter the ministry, feed a hungry child, teach an illiterate to read or run for public office. (Just what we need, more candidates.) These were all admirable suggestions, but the speech was the occasion when he was supposed to show the difference electing him would make.

In the end, these conventions became the telling of compelling stories of the lives of the four candidates on the two tickets. All have lived the American dream and have overcome a lot to get to where they are.

But what we want to know in the coming weeks is this -- how do we move forward an economy on the brink, end a war and reassure uncertain Americans who feel their lives are not going to get better until someone leads us out of this mess.

That's the challenge to both tickets today. There are eight weeks left to make the sale.

And so far not enough voters are buying either product.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 10.

#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)

If Obama had done the smart thing, he would have picked Sen. Hillary Clinton for vice president.

i don't agree with his premise about hillary, but one thing is for sure, biden is a total ho hum.

otoh, the palin pick is energizing at least in terms of entertainment. i have no idea who the ultimate winner will be now.

i'm still convinced it's not the voters who decide though.

christine  posted on  2008-09-08   14:39:41 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: christine, Original_Intent, burkeman1 (#1)

i'm still convinced it's not the voters who decide though.

The oligarchs select candidates to run that have near identical policies on things that matter. The differences between Iraq policy (or any foreign policy) between the two camps is that of semantics.

This is just like the politburo elections in communist countries where the party selected 2 or 3 party cadres to run for office with the differences being minimal between them all. I don't understand how the rest of the American people don't see that.

Boggles my mind actually.

Destro  posted on  2008-09-08   14:57:28 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Destro (#3)

I don't understand how the rest of the American people don't see that.

Boggles my mind actually.

yes, it does mine too. especially among those here that i thought had gotten that long ago.

some recent converts, frankly, have shocked me.

christine  posted on  2008-09-08   15:12:05 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: christine (#4)

Converts in which direction? Finally seeing the deception or embracing the deception and being willfully blind of it?

Destro  posted on  2008-09-08   15:13:15 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Destro (#5)

embracing the deception..enthusiastically.

christine  posted on  2008-09-08   15:20:03 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: christine, burkeman1 (#7)

embracing the deception..enthusiastically.

I am sure the left is just as tricked as the right - but until I saw the light I was part of the right wing so I can only speak to the right's motivation to get enthusiastic about McCain.

McCain is not licked by his faction's base (can we stop calling the two groups 'parties' - they are factions of the same oligarchy) so he can only motivate them by getting them to hate the other guy. Obama is that 70s black guy TV made the right wing cringe at when we saw him on Archie Bunker of The Jeffersons - the loud, black power militant who called white people honkey. I think calling Obama a Muslim is an attempt to get him tarred (pun intended) with the Black Muslim/Black Panther vibe that freaked out middle class whites in the 60s and 70s. So I can see how people who have long repressed this feeling now want to support McCain to get at this Obama who has been made to represent their worst fears.

Which I find laughable because Obama served the political machine in Chicago every bit as loyal as a part apparatchik served the NKVD in Stalin's era. Obama is a tame house servant every bit beholden to the Military Industrial Complex (he never voted for the Iraq war because he was not in office at the time but Obama would have voted for the war just like "anti Iraq War" Biden voted for the war. All he has to do is say he made a mistake in voting for the war - ooops. Now he is against the war - yet his policies are no different than the other party candidate beyond some parsed words you need a thesaurus for to figure out how they differ.

Destro  posted on  2008-09-08   15:33:57 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 10.

#12. To: Destro (#10) (Edited)

Precisely. Until the picking of Lady Palin- the entire McCain campaign consisted of hate for Obama - a sick violent hate that only reichwingers can work themselves up into.

Now- the McCain campaign consists of hoping he dies so that Lady "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" Palin can become "The Leader" and wave her magic rube wand and make it 1955 again (perhaps minus the segregated drinking fountains)- and hate for Obama.

Burkeman1  posted on  2008-09-08 22:58:54 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: Destro (#10)

McCain is not licked by his faction's base

freudian typo? ;)

christine  posted on  2008-09-08 23:24:43 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


End Trace Mode for Comment # 10.

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