It's Joe

As you likely know, Delaware's Senior Senator Joe Biden has been selected as Senator Barack Obama's running mate. He adds 35 years of experience to the ticket, which brings it all the way up to 38 years. Senator Biden will be a great apologist as seen below. As a Delawarean who personally knows the Biden's, Congratulations to the Biden family.

There is another side to the matter. As Senator Biden said, it is not merely about experience, but experience being right. Going back to Ronald Reagan's time to the Present; Senator Biden was wrong on the MX missile, the Nuclear freeze, the Surge in Iraq, The SDI missle shield, opposing the freedom fighters which helped bring down the Soviet Empire, and his support for the global tax--um global poverty initiative.

He is has been part of the problem with the energy crisis by opposing nuclear power, opposing oil shale development, opposing drilling off shore, and supporting debilitating taxes which would prevent investment in developing other reserves.

He has been good on some issues. He authored the Equal Access Act in 1984, the National Megan's law in 1996, the Violence Against Women's Act in 1994, and he pushed a spending limitation amendment on federal spending in 1983. He was the first Democrat to support overriding President Clintion's partial birth abortion veto. Notice that most of his initiatives in Domestic policy are from another century. In today's world, he has tended to obstruct and criticize. He no longer favors fiscal restraint. He was a leading force in weakening the military which has given us problems today. He filibustered the Homeland Security Department's formation even though he supported it because the unions wanted a better deal. He tried to force a partition on Iraq even though that sovereign nation didn't want it.
Senator Biden is a mixed bag. I am not sure that he will do much more than help solidify the base. According to Rasmussen most Americans who know him think he is a liberal (41%) and 43% have a favorable view vs. 38% with an unfavorable view. Nationally of the names being floated he had more support than anyone but Senator Clinton and fewer negatives than she has.

I view the Biden pick as a reasonable one. His opposition to partial birth abortion and abortion funding may take a little of the edge off of Senator Obama with Catholics that lean Democratic. America could do a lot worse in terms of foreign policy experience and knowledge. Most importantly, it assures America that an Obama administration will have a mix of qualified people and won't be a bunch of inexperienced ideologues. His first pick was one which showed reasonable judgement even though pundits will talk about what this does to his message of change. The truth is we need both change and stability. Senator Obama showed that he is not a prisoner to marketing, but thinking about governing. Unfortunately, the experience he added is just a lot more experience in the broken Liberal view of the world.

With that said, by not picking someone who could give him a red state like Bayh or Kaine, he took a big chance. Saturday, August 23rd may be the day that Senator McCain won if he chooses wisely.