The Obama-Biden ticket would be a stronger one if were upside down, but it’s pretty clear, from Biden’s past statements, that Biden wouldn’t have chosen Obama as his vice-president. “Where’s the love? “ Obama may ask. Which is the purpose of the picture. Is a thrill running up Chris Matthews’ leg?
A question voters may ask of Obama is how a candidate whose uses three abstractions in redundant fashion (change, hope, and audacity” chooses such a veteran member of the old guard and tradition. One reason is that Obama is desperate to overcome the echoes of his well-known dictum that Pennsylvanians are “bitter and clinging to guns and religion…etc.”
On the balance scale, Obama is far-left, farther left than his current opportunistic positions, designed to deceive voters. Biden is much closer to the center of Democratic politics and has made some good borrowings, as when he copied a speech some years ago from a British politician.
It’s hilarious that the Obama Lenni Riefenstahl is playing up that Biden lived in Scranton PA up until age 10. The local paper is carrying a story about “what a daring boy” he was before abandoning “the valley” and heading for higher ground. That’s like the brand-new PA congressman Bob Casey telling Pennsylvanians that Obama is “one of us.” If only he had been, he might have learned a few things about Pennsylvania, and so would Biden have also done, had he really lived here. But so it is when you’re in the business of myth creation.
Biden has already overshadowed the presidential candidate, especially in the flights of oratory. Oratory, by itself, is a soporific unless it’s combined with substance and Biden accomplishes both with a facility that sometimes needs restraint. The communicating abilities of the VP candidate will be welcome in the Obama camp but will inevitably lead to jealousies and have to be dumbed down. If a guy knows something, it is more difficult to keep it hidden. Obama, on the other hand, can find plenty of words to fill the hours even while he can scarcely find substance enough to fill a single sound bite.
No comments:
Post a Comment