Biden: The Safe Choice

So now that Sen. Barack Obama has picked fellow Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as his VP choice...now what?

Biden is not exactly the embodiment of change. He will celebrate his 36th year as a Senator next January. Other than foreign policy and judiciary committee expertise, Biden is known for oopsies and and Barkleyism (no filter between thought and speech). Besides his 1988 plagiarism issues (Neil Kinnock, anyone?), he mentioned Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy..." Joe didn't hesitate to voice his opinions of Republican candidates, either. On Rudy Giuliani: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11."

But picking an establishment man only goes so far to address criticisms that Obama doesn't know his way around foreign policy or Washington. It nullifies the notion from the primaries that Obama truly wants change. Biden obviously wasn't picked for Delaware's meager electoral vote prize, either. On the plus side, Obama didn't pick Hillary Clinton. Starting off with a candidate who has 40% - 50% negative national approval ratings wouldn't help. Nor would picking Evan Bayh or the female governor from Kansas whose name spells out libel and a few other letters.

So overall - Biden is a safe, white male who will essentially be Obama's Bob Dole: a hatchet man with experience.