Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Statesman

By Michael J.W. Stickings

"This is no ordinary time. This is no ordinary election. And this may be our last chance to reclaim the America we love, to restore America's soul." -- Joe Biden

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I was too busy yesterday to offer my initial thoughts on the Biden pick, but the co-bloggers put up some characteristically excellent posts -- I encourage you to check them out:

I put up the pro-Biden "Veepstakes: It's Biden!" late last night, when the news broke.

I'm a little worn out from my Veepstakes obsessions, but I'll post more soon.

Suffice it to say, for now, that I am extremely happy with the pick. We all know Biden's shortcomings, how he speaks his mind and sometimes ends up with a foot or two in his mouth, but his many strengths far outweigh his few weaknesses, and he and Obama make a formidable ticket.

Biden should help in states like Pennsylvania, where he was born, and with Catholics, and with white working-class voters in Appalachia and the Midwest, where Obama struggled against Hillary, but, more than all that, he is a national figure, a national leader, with extensive credibility. The Beltway media like him, he's tough, determined, and widely respected, and he has the sort of impressive foreign policy and national security experience that allows him to stand up to, and put in their place, McCain and the Republicans, as he has done throughout his career and as he will do now. He complements Obama with a different background and with different skills and as a different sort of leader but with the same values and the same message of hope and change.

It's like JFK and LBJ, in a way, except that Obama and Biden genuinely seem to like each other a great deal.

I have said many times before that America and world need Barack Obama. Joe Biden is the right man to stand at his side.

Watch these:



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