I don't really have anything to say about Joe Biden, though I suppose it'll be interesting to see if he and Dodd endorse anyone.
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Biden Drops Out
03 Jan 2008 11:32 pm
Comments (19)
Matt, as I said yesterday on your blog,
Obama will do well, if he had Biden as his VP or Sec. of State.
Why is Press ga-ga over HRC speech. I cannot believe how much Keith Obermann is pleased about it. He was upset by Obama's speech. What is his problem? He must be a dailykos guy, as DK hates Obama.
Why is Press ga-ga over HRC speech.
Because she was supposed to win. Obama better make damn sure he has control over the sound levels on his mike.
Biden was a generally decent guy. I wonder if that's a verboten sentiment in certain parts of left Blogistan.
should be *is* a decent guy.
Anyone who watched HRC's speech and didn't hear the not-so-distant death knell of her campaign must be deaf. Flat, off-guard, unfocused, boring. There was no there there. It's almost as if she herself realized that she simply doesn't have what it takes, now that the aura of inevitability was been blown away.
She's toast.
Senator Biden did himself proud in this campaign after that shaky start (but it led to that great debate one-liner). Now, he can return to the Senate and help pass healthcare reform, as well as lead foreign policy debates. If only Governor Richardson had dropped out and ran for the Senate from New Mexico, then maybe the next administration would have a working majority. That is, unless Senator Clinton doesn't join Senator Lieberman.
As for Veep stakes go, I would start looking at big blue state governors with executive experience, to keep the legislators in place. The next president has to learn how to listen to governors and mayors. Put Richardson at State to secure foreign policy experience, but domestic experience, including insight into business and insurance, will be needed.
Biden will land on his feet. He's an excellent senator and would be an excellent Cabinet member.
As for Dodd, I'd love to see him displace Harry Reid as Majority Leader.
As corporate lackeys go, Biden doesn't quite scrape the bottom of the barrel.
Biden might make a great Sec Def. Agree that Richardson's a natural for Sec State.
What about Warner (VA) as a veep candidate? (for Obama) Now that Vilsac's thrown in with HRC.
HRC speech, BTW, was a disaster. Desperate, defensive. Couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe the parade of ancient warhorses on the stage with her, either, even as the word "change" kept falling sourly out of her mouth. Big, big foulup. Who OK'd that guest list?
Governor Warner seems to have handled the VT crisis well.
Entrance poll notes:
- This was a generational win. Obama got 57% of the under 30 vote. That's an astonishing figure. To put it into perspective, it means Obama came in third among over the entire over 30 electorate and still won the caucuses comfortably.
- Clinton won the rural vote. There was a quote a few days ago from Edwards' rural coordinator, Mudcat Saunders, about how Team Clinton's organization was incredibly formidable in rural areas. I guess he wasn't lying. Edwards won the suburban vote. Obama won the urban vote by a big margin.
- Edwards won those who decided between 7 and 4 days ago, but tied Obama for those who decided in the final 3 days, which mirrors what I'd been figuring.
- Edwards won those who'd caucused before, but Obama obviously swamped him on new caucus-goers. Mirrors the CW.
- Obama came in third among married voters, but cleaned up among singles.
- Edwards won the second choice vote easily, despite the Richardson deal.
- Clinton beat Obama almost 3 to 1 among senior citizens, another example of just how much of a generational election this was.
- Edwards came in first among conservative Dems and third among very liberal Dems, which indicates how identity politics trumped ideology for this electorate.
- The union vote was narrowly bunched, with Edwards third, which is amazing.
- Edwards won those most concerned about electability, which at least shows that this electorate wasn't completely clueless.
- There was only one question referencing foreign policy, but it seemed to indicate that the less you cared about foreign policy, the more likely you were to vote for Edwards.
On to New Hampshire and Nevada.
Biden did not have any good one-liner - That dumb grammer joke about Rudy may have gotten a smug chuckle or two from liberals who were never gonna vote for him anyway, but it was a zero-appeal line with voters. Plus - he did not think it up himself. It was written for him.
Rudy would have splat him like a rotten banana if they debated each other.
God bless Barack! Bravo!
Edwards finished third among union voters? Amazing.
I think people forget that unions are organized to collectively bargain with employers, not do political field work. The same membership that is monolithic in it's desire to have better wages and benefits and a fair and safe workpace don't have monolithic views on things like foreign policy, health care, and national security.
I like unions and think it's good when they have more power but sometimes I wonder if what power they do have is woefully misdirected into endorsing candidates. Not that candidates don't matter but from a 'Moneyball' perspective it seems better to mobilize on behalf of legislation and AGAINST candidates who are trying to screw you and not FOR the slightly better candidate among a pool of good ones.
"I think people forget that unions are organized to collectively bargain with employers, not do political field work."
I think some asshole Obama supporters forget that unions are very much organized in part to do political work.
If Obama is the nominee, do you think unions wouldn't and shouldn't be working on his behalf?
The hatred of the Obama campaign and many Obama supporters for unions is a good chunk of the reason that I won't fall into line behind Obama a moment before it's absolutely necessary. And it's also why he's ultimately vulnerable to an anti-Obama candidate developing in the primaries.
Bash the base enough, and the base may end up bashing you back.
Don't forget that you assholes only got to 38% in Iowa. You need to start getting up to 50% to get enough delegates to actually be the nominee.
I think we owe some gratitude to Biden for helping make so many outstanding points in the debates.
He did.
He slapped this whole Iran issue around by pointing out how tiny the made-up hyped "Iran threat" was and re-oriented everyone back around Pakistan.
Now, I don't think this is evidence of actual foreign policy "brilliance" anywhere but outside the incredibly stupid world of U.S. politician standard discourse and our nim-brained punditry. Me & my friends made such points for years.
But still, in context, it was a significant intervention.
"Biden did not have any good one-liner - That dumb grammer joke about Rudy may have gotten a smug chuckle or two from liberals who were never gonna vote for him anyway, but it was a zero-appeal line with voters. Plus - he did not think it up himself. It was written for him.
Rudy would have splat him like a rotten banana if they debated each other."
Actually, I'd love to see Biden pimp-slap Guiliani into the appropriate posture of submission. Guiliani's a serial liar who only gets away with making shit up because no one in the Republican debates knows he's doing it until they've talked to their staff after the arguing's done. There's only so much overwrought posturing can get you in a real debate, and I'd bet Giuliani would run out of gas pretty fast against anyone with half his facts straight. So Biden isn't funny. One can afford to be humorless when talking about things like nuclear proliferation.
Giuliani's a pinhead who's only good when people are completely kissing his *ss like his worshipful, dumb friend Glenn Beck who has him as a guest on approximately every 7 seconds.
"Bash the base," Petey? Have you lost it? Obama has never once insulted the base. Open your eyes--he's expanding the base to create a new progressive majority. If Edwards really cares about America, he will concede and endorse Obama sooner rather than later.
Comments closed January 17, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
I hear that Obama feller is one articulate negro.
Posted by sherifffruitfly | January 3, 2008 11:48 PM