Obama, No Longer Biden His Time

Here I took the good time and trouble to arise even earlier this morning so as to fearlessly write something of prescience before the brouhaha of an official announcement -- the announcement -- broke, but alas, the Obama campaign was forced to concede the obvious before the appointed hour, and as I slept. At least now there's no hurry.

The derring-do I had in mind lacked only the daring part. Yes, I would 'project' -- television networkstyle -- that Obama's choice would be Joe Biden, thereby (un)boldly putting the horse before the cart, or, to use Norman Mailer's somewhat livelier metaphor, putting the fornication before the foreplay.

But, of course, I was prepared to do that only because such speculation wasn't much of a speculative risk. In fact, I saw no risk at all. Because, let's face it, who was left?

By last night, the veepstake co-leaders Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine had confirmed to the national media they had been politely told to unpack; and as we learned even earlier, from the Politico, Hillary Clinton had never even been vetted by the Obama campaign. Ouch.

Which reminds me: The New York Times reported yesterday that although "national polls show that [Hillary's] supporters have been moving toward Mr. Obama," some of those supporters are growing resentful of her heretofore halfhearted support of the Democratic nominee, and others are "demanding a strong signal from her on whether to shift their allegiance." Whether to? And shift just where, exactly?

If Hillary is to retain her presidential dreams of 2012 or '16, she had best get very enthusiastic about Obama, and soon, or she'll otherwise find herself an irrecoverable party outcast. But I expect we'll see that enthusiasm adjustment Tuesday night, after which, finally, and thankfully, the Just Say No Deal-ers and PUMA-pods can resume their increasingly sequestered attendance at the Prof. Irwin Corey Memorial Temple of the Unholy Non Sequitur.

But, back to the vice-presidential candidacy of Sen. Joe Biden.

I admit I lacked the keen interest of many in this elongated announcement process -- largely because I, like millions of others, saw little alternative to Biden -- but I also have to admit that as vice-presidential political theatre goes, there has been none better.

Obama's people stagecrafted this thing with unprecedented aplomb, making, as stated above, the bloody obvious seem suspenseful. And that, of course, kept Obama in the forefront of the news in a positive or at least neutral way during the crowded Olympic weeks and throughout John McCain's hyperventilating hyperpatriotic assaults.

Plus, since genuine suspense never actually loomed, the selection-announcement process gave pundits time to knowingly warm up to Mr. Inevitability, as even the conservative David Brooks of the New York Times did yesterday.

I was especially intrigued by Brooks' analysis because everything he said was so reassuringly correct, yet he somehow managed to omit what many voters will find to be the single-most reassuring factor in Biden's selection -- his foreign policy knowledge and experience.

With vulpine subtlety, Brooks talked around Biden's aforementioned qualities of the most acute public interest, choosing to praise instead the Delaware senator's assets of working-class roots, honesty, loyalty and (largely unspecified) experience.

Biden, acknowledged Brooks, is a "lunch-bucket Democrat," hence he will "be the [blue-collar] bridge" that Hillary will not; his "most notorious feature is his mouth," but, refreshingly, "he tells you exactly what he thinks"; he has had plenty of his "own moments of need," and "loyalty comes easiest to people who have been down themselves"; and, naturally, he possesses oodles and oodles of old-school experience, and "if Obama hopes to pass energy and health care legislation, he’s going to need someone with that kind of legislative knowledge."

As for his renowned sophistication in the field of international relations (sophisticated, that is, as long as one redacts the year 2002 from his resume)? Not a word from Brooks. But that's ok. We know why. To conservatives, that's McCain's exclusive sandbox, and it's unthinkable for any good conservative to suggest otherwise.

And it will, I'm sure, become Biden's chief asset once he begins haunting the West Wing. Until such time, however, I would speculate instead that his even greater commodity is that which Brooks does note: his honesty.

Biden rarely pulls his punches. In fact, he seems almost constitutionally incapable of doing so. And though message discipline may prove to be problematic for him at times, in general -- and most important, during the general -- his outspokenness on all issues, and how Mr. McCain would only ball them up even worse than they presently are, will represent Biden's greatest virtue for Obama.