Biden

That was excellent. Too bad the republicans have steered this election right away from where it needs to be...the last eight years.

Thank you, Greg!
A perfect meme for an epidemic.
I'll happily serve as spreader.

Hell hath no fury, indeed! Outrage--not only at the last 8 years but also at the current tone set by McCain/Palin--is not only warranted, IMO, but vital to the success of the democratic ticket.

The question you really have to answer, though, is -- Is this effective? As an independent for decades (no, I would never assign my beliefs to the label of a political party, thank you very much), I love watching how the parties battle it out. And I admit that, in this election, I'm starting to get worried about what I'll call the Kerry-Gore-Gephardt Syndrome.

This is the point at which the country begins to feel that the Democrats are focused on whining about what is not right about the world; what is not right about America; who is being left behind; and how great are the class distinctions in America. Obviously, there is some core truth to what they're saying. There are problems, very serious problems, with our world, our country, and the distribution of wealth in America.

But, if you anchor on those messages, you begin to sound like the professors (in my college English department) who clearly wanted to move from conflict to conflict rather than from resolution to resolution. This is a key difference in the Republican vs. Democratic Party messages -- which has allowed someone like George W. Bush who has achieved nothing in his life, served no one remarkably, succeeded in no clear way, and who demonstrates no intellectual curiosity. . to BECOME PRESIDENT.

I mean, throw yourself down the staircase, bang a drum with your head, and eat nothing but doughnuts and vodka for a month if ten years ago you saw coming that we could elect someone so incredibly incompetent as our sitting president. It is simply shocking. Now, when you emerge from the shock, you really have one of two options:

1) You can, as I think Greg has done in his political blogging, offer the stated or unstated conclusion that Americans are idiots; they don't realize what they're getting themselves into; they're dumb.

or...

2) The party running against peope our sitting president are just making monumental mistakes, equivalent to playing tennis without strings in the racket or lining up to play the Bears without helmets on.

Now I'm of the mind that there's some truth in both of those assumptions, but I must say from my independent perspective, I think it's a lot more of #2 than #1. The democratic party is trying to run on what's wrong with America. They're willing to play the class card. And in all their convention speeches, they said, "Hello Democrats!" rather than "Hello, Americans!" And they, reading off a script, said:

"Were here for the cops and the firefighters; the teachers; the assembly line workers -- the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures."

You did not hear that line just once. Nor twice. You heard it 5-10 times in and around the convention. Now, leave aside the repetition, and just see what they're emphasizing. No, we're not talking to doctors. We're not talking to people running small businesses. We're not talking to people working at great companies like Google, Pixar, Procter & Gamble. We're not talking to doctors or patent lawyers or financial planners or scientists.

No.

We're talking to people in UNIONS.

Period.

This stuff is straight out of the Gephardt Playbook and is a surefire to shrink your vote (cf. the voting tallies of Gephardt and Biden in their primary runs -- absolutely disastrously bad numbers).

I know this will be an unpopular statement to make. But in my opinion, Joe Biden was one of the worst VP picks Sen. Obama could have made. He is an old guard, in-the-credit-card-industry's-pocket, small-state leader with a real potential to gaffe (cf. Indian American video available on You Tube, lying about his educational record in 1988, all the way through to saying "my wife is gorgeous; she's Phd -- which can be a problem" etc).

I am now becoming very worried for the Dem ticket in this election. Of course I may be wrong. But if I'm right, don't blame it all on Americans not being well educated enough. A good measure of the blame belongs at the feet of those who will not run the race for the future (as Bill Clinton did), who will not align themselves with innovation, technology; who will not secure the base and then run like hell to the middle (i.e. talk about changes that must be made to the teacher's union. . . cuz you know you'll still get their vote), etc.

Bill Clinton gave the best Dem Convention speech, by a wide margin. . I wish he could run the Obama for Prez campaign. . . he'd run it with optimism, looking to broaden the tent, be inclusive, welcome all, be of good cheer, be smart and firm but always optimistic.

Forgot to mention that if you really think Joe Biden was the right choice and will rake in votes for the ticket, read this:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/08/rollins.convention/index.html

Tee, you're getting down on the Obama campaign for not being centrist? For not embracing technology? I'm not buying it.

Thanks for your generous worries on our behalf, but you can keep them. We don't need them. Some of us have chosen to be audacious instead.

If you're really that concerned about the Democrats' chances, why don't you go find some Republicans and worry loudly about Palin instead.

Thanks Hero, for that succinct redirection of Tee...I was not looking forward to writing a big bunch of WTF!!!??!?!?!?! myself - too exhausting for one demoralized by so much riot gear this last week.

One thing I'd like to say (or at least hope) about Biden, though, regarding what an appropriate choice he was (maybe the only choice, really, given the fight that Democrats will now have to fight) is that, given his irrepressibility, we should begin to hear some direct talk about Lying Liars who Lie. I'm not sure why Obama has steered clear of this language thus far (and correct me if I'm wrong, I'd love to be), but I can't think of any more important "issue" at the moment.

Ana, to cheer yourself up, I recommend spending some long moments in contemplation of the fact that, with that many geared up "peacekeepers," the chances are good that at least one of them was wearing his pink ruffled pants underneath. Or wishing he dared. Think of it as a spot of color in all that black.

Tee was the first of three "independent" libertarians I've seen in the blogosphere in the last two weeks moaning about how, "oh noes," the Democrats have blown the election. I'm not really inclined to listen to him talk about how far to the left they are. Besides, if I recall correctly, he already said he was taking his toys and going home.

On the "liar, liar" question, I think Obama is doing a good job of mocking the lies without using that word. I'm down with that strategy. It's a lot harder to dismiss him as "angry" when he's laughing. Let Biden handle the anger. I like Biden when he's angry.

Never mind.

Best of luck.

I agree that an angry black man at the top of the ticket does not do any good, and of course Obama smiles and laughs because that's who he is, but I don't think that anger has to enter the conversation about "what is" and "what was" and "what comes of administrations that do not base themselves in fact". There's just enough a gap, however, between "that's a lie" and "they're not telling the truth" for some blind believers to fall through. I do like Obama's raising the idea that "they must think you're stupid", though. That line makes ME smile and laugh.

Ana, I agree that anger doesn't have to enter the picture at all, but I also think it wouldn't take one bit of actual anger for anger to become part of the Obama narrative in the press. These are the people who still call McCain a maverick, after all, instead of broken, compromised and desperate. But yes, it would be nice to hear, "They think they can lie to you and you won't care," as well, said in that same bemused, mocking tone.