Say it Ain't So, Barack: Obama Chooses Joe Biden as his Running Mate

Obama's choice of Joe Biden as his VP is both brave and foolhardy--reminiscent of Custer's last stand in Montana, Napolean at Waterloo, or Britney Spears' marriage to Kevin Federline.

Obama and his drones clearly calculated that Biden's supposed foreign policy experience, acquired primarily in his self-serving blusterings and theatrics as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, outweighed his mantra for change and the need to get white working class voters like those Hillary Clinton ended up getting in the Democratic primary.

Obama's chances have been slim to none from the outset, and his sloughing off his leitmotif of change and brazen run for the center or even center-right on issues such as gun control, privacy/security, offshore drilling, etc., in the general election are indication of just how aware Obama is of his weaknesses.

It then is all the more puzzling why he would choose someone like Biden. Biden has run for President two times now, engendering both times the interest and excitement of watching paint dry on a wall. Also, while Biden may appeal to a few liberals who aren't bothered by his craven opportunism (in typical Biden fashion on the Iraq War he was for this when it was popular, against it when it wasn't), there is no indication that Biden will have any popularity with the kinds of voters in Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Virginia or any of the swing states that Obama needs so desperately to have a chance of winning in November. Sam Nunn or even George Mitchell would have been a far better pick both in terms of experience and pull with these more conservative voters.

Most dangerous, is Obama's slap-in-the-face to Hillary Clinton supporters. He is not doing well with many of these folks it seems and he has now all but written them off. For anyone who was on the fence his choosing of Biden, coupled with Obama's not even seriously considering Clinton as a possible VP, will ensure that many of her supporters do not vote at all or will vote for McCain.

Obama's disrespect of this group is so flagrant, in fact, that it indicates he believes he can win without these voters. For this to be the case, however, he would have to register and then turn out enough new voters to make up for those he has alienated. This is unlikely in the extreme.

Don't get me wrong. I do not have a lot of sympathy for HC. She ran a dumb campaign and when all is said and done, was beaten fair and square. She was clearly the more electible candidate in the general election, though, and Obama's only chance of winning, slim as it was, was ensuring that he could bring her voters back into the fold. Choosing her as VP might not have accomplished this and with her on the ticket may well have brought other problems. That said, he needed to reach out to her, signal that he was seriously considering her, and, most important, do everything in his power to acquire her voters.

That he hasn't done this and, indeed, has signalled that white working class voters are not important to a Democratic victory in the Fall, all but ensures that Democrats will once again go down to a stinging, dumbheaded, and unnecessary defeat.

Obama's calculations in the primary were nearly flawless and he has, despite what many have said, been running a very good general election campaign. His math has gone wildly wrong with his pick of Biden, though, and Democrats are almost certainly going to pay the price in November.