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Reason #34 to vote for Obama/Biden


Because Barack Obama showed excellent decision-making ability in selecting Joe Biden to be his running mate.

This reason seems appropriate today given that the only formal vice presidential debate – between Obama’s choice for VP, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, and Alaska Governor and John McCain’s selection of who should be president in waiting, Alaska Governor since 2006 Sarah Palin – will occur this evening (see more here for details which include a PBS live-stream option for viewing the debate; C-SPAN debate hub is an excellent place to watch too).

Many people more knowledgeable than myself have opined on the value of the VP pick but here’s a nice column by Carl Leubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News that highlights common themes:

•Ready to serve on Day One. Vice presidential candidates must be deemed qualified by pundits and politicians, whose instant assessments will fill airwaves and newspapers. Presidential nominees should avoid picking running mates whose skimpy résumés may cast doubt on their judgment.

•Been around. As the Democratic campaign shows, presidential politics is rough. It would be a gamble to pick someone with little experience in elective politics, like Condoleezza Rice or Wesley Clark.

•No skeletons. The VP candidate must be fully vetted to avoid unpleasant surprises about his or her background. After the 1972 Democratic fiasco over the late Tom Eagleton’s electric-shock history, candidates began to assign trusted aides to conduct intensive background checks. This process could favor someone who has sought the presidency itself and undergone the accompanying media scrutiny.

•Able to debate. The candidate must be able to do well in the vice presidential debate, perhaps the only time except for selection day in which No. 2 gets the political spotlight. It’s important to avoid someone who will seem uninformed, inarticulate or weak.

•Helpful politically. Useful, but hard to calculate. Candidates sometimes use the choice to unite a divided party, as Ronald Reagan did with George H.W. Bush in 1980.

It helps for a candidate to bring a state, or region, that might otherwise be lost. Al Gore might have become president eight years ago had he picked Sen. Bob Graham of Florida – and had he known he would lose that key state and the presidency by 537 votes.

A candidate with blue-collar and union support like Dick Gephardt might have helped John Kerry win Ohio in 2004; Mr. Edwards proved unhelpful in his home state of North Carolina.

Sometimes, the political help is less tangible: Bill Clinton’s choice of Mr. Gore in 1992 helped reinforce a sense of generational change. Dick Cheney helped offset George W. Bush’s lack of international experience, something Mr. Obama might want to do if he is the 2008 Democratic nominee.

•Political hit man. The ideal running mate is not only qualified for the presidency but able to perform the traditional vice presidential role of taking the lead in political slugging. “Politics ain’t bean bag,” Finley Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley said, but the public seems to prefer having the top candidate avoid the tough stuff.

Joe Biden meets every single one of these criteria.  Every. Single. One.

Sarah Palin? Not so much.

What list was McCain looking at when he was trying to decide which abilities and qualities his pick should possess?

I’m doubtful that that list looked anything like Leubsdorf’s because, with the exception of being a political name-calling machine, Sarah Palin lacks credentials for any of the other criteria.  This is part of why I’ve said that McCain’s pick was a huge miscalculation: it emboldened the base, but has alienated moderates and independents and, according to recent polls, persuaded those two groups of voters to support the Obama/Biden ticket.

Which points us back to the point of this post: decision-making ability.  Obama has excellent decision-making ability and we see that in the success of his choices (from how he handled the financial crises over the last two weeks to how he’s run his campaign for the last 20 months and many decisions in between).

McCain? Not so much.  At all.

On November 4, vote for Obama/Biden.

Previous Reasons to vote Obama/Biden:

Reason #57 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #56 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #55 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #54 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #53 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #52 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #51 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #50 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #49 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #48 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #47 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #46 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #45 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #44 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #43 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #42 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #41 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #40 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #39 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Reason #38, 37, 36 and 35 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:48 am October 2nd, 2008 in 57ReasonsObamaBiden, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin, WH2008 

Comments

2 Responses to “Reason #34 to vote for Obama/Biden”

  1. 1 E.J. Dionne on debate: Maverickiness fails as an organizing principle of decision-making | Writes Like She Talks on October 3rd, 2008 2:21 pm

    [...] Reason #34 to vote for Obama/Biden [...]

  2. 2 Reason #32 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden | Writes Like She Talks on October 4th, 2008 11:30 pm

    [...] Reason #34 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden [...]

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