Five things Joe Biden brings to the table for Barack Obama
While there is still a lot of research to be done on this, here are five areas that Senator Joe Biden could help Barack Obama in as they begin their fight to defeat John McCain.
Helps bring in Catholic vote: Joe Biden is very open about the fact that he is Catholic, there will be no emails circulating around the internet questioning the authenticity of his Christianity. Sorry guys, you won’t be seeing emails questioning whether or Joe Biden ever attended a madrasah. Yes, Joe Biden is pro-choice, however there are many Catholics who will always support “their own,” regardless of where they stand.
Helps bring in the female vote: Joe Biden has an extremely interesting life story when it comes to his family and taking charge as a father. Here is a brief summary from his Wikipedia page talking about just one of the tragedies that have made him the family man he is:
“His wife and infant daughter died in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident, but both eventually made full recoveries. Biden was sworn into office from their bedside. Persuaded not to resign in order to care for them, Biden began the practice of commuting an hour and a half each day on the train from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, DC, which he continues to do.
Doesn’t create a wealth distraction: One issue that many candidates run into when seeking office is their own personal fortunes and what has been handed down to them, which makes it hard to paint themselves as the candidate for the “middle class.” While Barack Obama and Joe Biden are not poor by any standards, they both come from very humble beginnings (Obama raised by a single mom, Biden by a used car salesman). This is in contrast to John McCain, who is the son of an oil heiress and married an heiress himself (though I personally see nothing wrong with it, but I’m sure some Soros ad will go after it).
Foreign policy experience: As we all know, in terms of foreign policy experience, Barack Obama really doesn’t have much. However, Joe Biden is currently the Chairman on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, a committee he has been on consistently since 1973. Those 35 years on the committee have given Joe Biden insider access to all of the international hostilities that have occurred during his tenure.
A son currently serving in the military: While it seems that the economy is going to be the biggest debate for this election, you cant sidestep the fact that we are still a nation at war. Barack Obama has said repeatedly that his goal is to get our troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, which has left many moderates questioning whether he understands how the military works and the consequences. When you mix the fact that Joe Biden’s son will more than likely be in Iraq when (if) he is innaugerated, with his years of service on the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations, many voters may feel reassured knowing that he has a personal and a professional stake in the military, meaning he wont take action that doesn’t make sense for the troops and for the country.
Please don’t hesitate to leave your comments, and additional things that you think Joe Biden brings to the table for Barack Obama.
Of course, expect a post in the coming days of “5 ways Joe Biden hurts Barack Obama.”
A Joe Biden blast from the past
So we know that Joe Biden has now been added to the ticket to help Barack Obama attempt to take down John McCain in November. However, lets take a look back at one of the ideas Joe Biden had for Senator McCain during the last election:
Biden endorses a Kerry-McCain ticket
Democrat’s ‘Hardball’ comments likely to fuel new speculation
By Mike Stuckey
MSNBC.com Politics EditorOne of the presidential nominating season’s most unusual ideas was pushed again Tuesday, this time by one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, when Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware advocated a “unity” ticket of Democratic Sen. John Kerry and Republican Sen. John McCain.
Biden made his comments on MSNBC TV’s “Hardball” when moderator Chris Matthews asked him: “Do you think McCain is seriously — and I mean this professionally — flirting with the idea of accepting a second place on the ticket with John Kerry, and creating a fusion ticket to run against the president?”
Replied Biden: “I think that this is time for unity in this country, and maybe it is time to have a guy like John McCain — a Republican — on the ticket with a guy he does like. They do get along. And they don’t have fundamental disagreements on major policies.”
When asked by Matthews if he would support such a ticket, Biden said, “I would. Yeah, if John Kerry said that’s who he wanted, and McCain — I’d encourage McCain to say yes. I doubt whether John would do it. I doubt whether John McCain would do it. But, you know, we need some unity here, man. The red states and the blue states — we’ve got to have something to coalesce around here.”
The notion that a lifelong Republican like McCain would join the Democratic ticket is widely dismissed by many Washington observers, but McCain himself fanned the flames when he said last week on an ABC News show that he would “entertain” joining Kerry on the Democratic ticket.
“John Kerry is a close friend of mine. We have been friends for years,” McCain said on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. “Obviously I would entertain it.”
But the Arizona senator’s chief of staff, Mark Salter, shot the idea down a short time later, saying that he had McCain’s approval to firmly announce that “Senator McCain will not be a candidate for vice president in 2004.”
And despite his close relationship with Kerry, McCain himself had cast such an invitation as highly unlikely. “It’s impossible to imagine the Democratic Party seeking a pro-life, free-trading, non-protectionist, deficit hawk,” he said.
Biden’s endorsement of such a ticket Tuesday is likely to bring a fresh round of speculation in Washington. The Delaware Democrat is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and considered his own bid for the presidency this year.
Let’s see how long it takes for him to come up with a clever way to retract that.