Month: August 2008

A reader writes:

Thanks for making my pre-dawn with the gentle but deadly skewering of Jonah G over the Balzac bon mots idiocy.  I’m sure Jonah at heart is a delightful fellow but it’s always-always amusing to see someone throwing stuff around when it’s clear they’ve not done their homework and don’t know what the f they’re talking about. And he got to use proleterian too.  Clever lad — Made my day.

I’d say we qualify around here as pointy-headed elites.  Down on our luck too which is, after all, the ultimate qualifier. Here are the sources of the bon mots we reach for and repeat tediously on a daily basis — Stuff from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Eddie Izzard (as James Mason), The Simpsons (from the glory days), and most anything South Park.  Sometimes when we’re feeling uber & languid we devolve and head for George Bernano.  He’s got some great pithy simple stuff about the necessity and futility of dusting.

Speaking of elites, caught a few minutes of the fantabulous Marlene Dietrich serving post-concert coffee to a bemused Spencer Tracy in Judgment at Nuremberg. "It’s ersatz but I make it strong." Marlene was so skilled at being able to convey a lifetime of experience in one simple sentence. So very very elitist.   And what a body for terrific clothes.

Okay with Biden — He can speak English in a way folks get and that’s a good old thing.

My reader made some very smart observations. My take here.

A reader reminds me of this:

As he speaks, as he goes on and on and spins his long statements, hypotheticals, and free associations–as he demonstrates yet again . . . that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back–you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going.

I love him. He’s human, like a garrulous uncle after a drink.

Like a garrulous Irish uncle after a drink.

Credit where it’s due:

"In naming my colleague and friend Joe Biden to be the vice presidential nominee, Barack Obama has continued in the best traditions for the vice presidency by selecting an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant. Senator Biden will be a purposeful and dynamic vice president who will help Senator Obama both win the presidency and govern this great country."

This post from an anonymous Democrat, published a few days ago by Mark Halperin, is a pretty good summary of the case:

“Biden is deeply thoughtful, serious, passionate, experienced, highly knowledgeable, and incredibly sensible and clear when talking about major issues. He has a vast and creative understanding of politics and policy, a sharp mind, and a sincere heart.  He’s totally ready to be president. Together, Obama and Biden would  represent the best of the last 30 years of the Democratic Party, and the hope for the next 30.

Biden may be a ridiculous, overbearing blowhard, and he’ll doubtless make foolish blunders and imprudent comments if he’s on the ticket, but he’d still be an excellent campaigner, surrogate, and debater. He’d be thrilled at the prospect of being vice president (his own aspirations aside), and grateful and proud to have been chosen–he’d work hard to make Obama look good, and not deliberately outshine him–plus the chemistry will be appealing, and they genuinely like and respect each other, which will be winningly apparent.

Also, America is no longer a place where citizens care about plagiarism or hair plugs. A Biden pick would immediately elevate Obama’s gravitas, give him a semblance of humility, delight the media, and reassure the nation that a grownup is involved. Democrats would be simultaneously relieved and apprehensive, but they’d be pleased with the choice overall. Plus, Biden is Catholic, is a Washington insider in a good way (a hardworking man of the people unchanged by three decades inside the Beltway), and has a tragic history with a happy ending.

There’s generational politics here:

Biden’s net favorable score among seniors was the highest of any Democrat that Rasmussen tested, except for John Edwards.

Biden has more appeal for seniors than Clinton. It may mean Florida gets a little tighter.

Jon Cohn makes a good point:

Conservatives will blast [Biden’s] record, just as surely as liberals will (or should) celebrate it. But one of the virtues of having Biden as the vice presidential nominee is that he won’t take those kinds of attacks lightly. He’ll fight back. He’ll remind people, rightly, that being a liberal Democrat means raising the minimum wage, making sure everybody has affordable health care, providing strong public schools, and protecting human rights. Then, he’ll ask why conservative Republicans don’t want the same things. That’s exactly the kind of political debate this country needs. By picking Biden as a running mate, Obama has signaled that he welcomes this argument–and intends, finally, to win it.

The Clintonian defensive crouch is over.

If you’re going to announce your veep in an innovative way, follow through. One of many readers writes:

I signed up for Obama’s "first to know" e-mail from one of your posts. Since I heard about Obama’s Veep pick from CNN and MSNBC and NYTimes, I realize I’ve been played.

 

Still no e-mail from Mr Obama.

That was from 2.57 am. That was when the texts and emails went out. That 3 am idea wasn’t far off the mark, was it? Many readers got it then. I confess: I went to bed.

The clip above explains the rationale, I’d say. The biggest emerging problem with the Obama campaign is Obama’s reluctance, lack of talent and lack of will to get into lively, feisty, pissing matches with his opponent. This was brought home in the Saddleback forum. What he needs is a plucky, fun, free-wheeling attack machine, with the necessary gravitas to express adequate contempt for the Bush administration’s fatally misguided foreign policy without in any way seeming defensive.

Two further quotes:

"I refuse to sit back like we did in 2000 and 2004. This administration is the worst administration in American foreign policy in modern history — maybe ever. … Every single thing they’ve touched has been a near-disaster."

And this:

"Rudy Giuliani… I mean, think about it! Rudy Giuliani. There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There’s nothing else!"

I have to say his inability to shut up drives me up the wall. But there’s also an appealing lack of guile to the man; he wears his flaws like his hair-plugs – out and proud.

And, yes, his foreign policy assuredness cannot hurt. He’s a Senator who doesn’t just call foreign leaders; they call him. Obama is wise not to under-estimate the understandable worries about his foreign policy inexperience at a time of this much danger for the world.

How the chemistry works, I don’t know. Whether Biden can help rally white working class Democrats, as David Brooks suggested, I do not know. Delaware is not exactly Pennsylvania or Ohio. But this was a pick that also demonstrates Obama’s ability to bring genuinely independent voices into his inner circle and harness experience greater than his.

Not an inspired choice, in my book. But smart and solid – and adult.