So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Printable Version

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

[SIZE="5"]Biden is wrench in McCain's VP choice[/SIZE]
By JEANNE CUMMINGS | 8/27/08 4:34 AM EST Text Size:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12867.html

DENVER — Democrat Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as a running mate is complicating Republican John McCain’s analysis of his prospective vice presidential contenders.

Biden will make his formal debut Wednesday with a primetime address. McCain is expected to announce his pick after Obama accepts his nomination here on Thursday.

Some insiders are pressing McCain to make a strategic selection, one that beefs up his economic strength, enhances his chance to grab a state or amps up the partisan firepower.

“McCain knows Biden well. He knows how good he is as a knife fighter. He’ll take McCain apart,” said one Republican operative.

But a review of the much-rumored McCain shortlist clearly exposes the weaknesses each person on it might bring if matched up against the six-term senator from Delaware.

• The star of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seemed to be rising this summer in tandem with voters’ increasing anxiety about the economy.

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But a McCain gaffe over how many homes he owns — he told Politico he didn’t know the exact number — would take on new life if multimillionaire Romney became his running mate.

Democrats already have calculated that the two men own a dozen homes between them, valued at a total of about $35 million.

That message could hurt McCain in two ways: It undercuts his argument that Obama is an out-of-touch elitist and would make Romney a poor match to Biden’s middle-class upbringing and common-man appeal on the stump.

• Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s strength is youth and executive experience. On television talk shows, he’s also shown a willingness to level attacks against Obama, although they are largely a reiteration of campaign talking points.

But Pawlenty, 48, may seem too young and inexperienced when measured against Biden, 65, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 — when the governor was just 12 years old.

During his service in the Senate, Biden has become a respected voice on foreign affairs. President Bush called him for advice after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Biden also is a two-time presidential candidate and a skilled sparring partner with years of practice against Republicans in the upper chamber — experiences that have given him a familiarity with partisan debate on the national stage that Pawlenty lacks.

A nationally televised Biden-Pawlenty debate “is unthinkable,” said one Republican insider.

• Former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge could be a better match to Biden’s national security credentials. Ridge’s service in the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 attacks provided a crash course on terrorism and national security issues.

As a former Pennsylvania governor, he could be a powerful counterweight to Biden’s Catholic upbringing in Scranton, a working-class Keystone State enclave that went heavily for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries but could be up for grabs in November.

Ridge also is capable of throwing stinging political punches and has become a mainstay on the political talk-show circuit.

But there are downsides to a Ridge selection.

He is a supporter of abortion rights, which would aggravate McCain’s already uneasy alliance with his party’s conservative wing.

Ridge has tried to assuage conservatives about his abortion stance by stating that he would defer to McCain’s position calling for overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling establishing abortion rights.

But such a nuanced position would be fertile turf for Biden to try to accomplish two goals: painting Ridge as a flip-flopper and driving a wedge between McCain and many independent and swing women voters on the abortion issue.

Another Ridge weakness is that a consulting firm he created after serving in the Bush administration recently disclosed a large lobbying contract with Albania.

Obama would seize on that contract to undermine McCain’s efforts to position himself as a crusader against the professional advocacy class.

While McCain aides are pressing for a strategic pick, insiders say the independent-minded Arizona senator has approached the decision through the lens of governing: Who would add value to policy debates, and who is best prepared to step into the top spot?

• That approach tends to enhance the credentials of Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a recently turned independent who has an easy rapport with McCain and who has already run for vice president as a Democrat.

But Lieberman’s long history as a Democrat could make for a bizarre debate with Biden — with the two of them sharing long records supporting labor causes and abortion rights and a host of other issues that would infuriate McCain’s activist base.

In essence, said one insider, a Lieberman pick “means McCain would run a campaign without a core constituency of the Republican Party.”

Phyllis Schlafly, of the conservative Eagle Forum, was more blunt: “I think there would be a walkout on Lieberman at the convention. He’s not a Republican.”

McCain’s rethinking doesn’t mean that the Biden pick doesn’t open some doors.

While Biden enhances Obama’s foreign policy credentials, he doesn’t represent an effort to reach out to moderate voters. Both men are ranked among the Senate’s most liberal members.

Brian Darling, a political analyst at the Heritage Foundation, says McCain doesn’t “need to answer” the Biden pick and could take advantages of the geographic flexibility it suddenly offers him.

“If this election is going to be as close as the polls indicate, Joe Biden doesn’t change the map at all,” said Darling


I disagree strongly with the last sentence here.Biden certainly changes mccains chances in Pennsylvania to doubtful.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Anhil8tor - 08-27-2008

BIRD33 Wrote:I'm not.There are huge difference between the two candidates.If it takes a week before the election to decide what side of the fence you're on then what have you been doing for the last 8 months?

Of course some bombshell about either guy could come out but I doubt it will take that long.

most people aren't keeping up with it right now. the mccain people are with him.. the obama people are with him.. the rest are undecided until the week before.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

I don't think its going down like that.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - snarg - 08-27-2008

this race is all about race
we will soon know whether or not the US continues to be a racist nation
i hope not, but am not confident

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 08-27-2008

snarg Wrote:this race is all about race
we will soon know whether or not the US continues to be a racist nation
i hope not, but am not confident

This race is going to come down to race, experience, age, and mudslinging skills.

Obama starts off with 2 strikes.

McCain starts off with 1 strike.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

It is all about race.I agree with snarg.Im not positive people are ready either.We deserve what we get if thats the case.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 08-27-2008

I liked how Hillary totally threw Obama under the bus last night during her Campaign speech for Hillary '12.

I'm not sure how she said it, but after her complete synopsis of her entire campaign and what she would do if President, she said "I want to be there when Obama signs into law the legislation that provides health care for every single American. I want to be there when Obama quickly ends the war and brings every single service man back from Iraq......"

She's already setting this up to make him a laughing stock if he gets elected and can't do the things that she knows are impossible for anyone to do. And she was so measured in the way she said it "every single soldier home.....and "health care for EVERY american".

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 08-27-2008

BIRD33 Wrote:It is all about race.I agree with snarg.Im not positive people are ready either.We deserve what we get if thats the case.

Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on that. I think the two most prominent things that this race will be about are race and age. And for the dumbasses like you, discrimination based on race is no more or less stupid than discrimination based on age.

You can joke about how old he is and that's fine. But let Anhilator make even a slight hint that could be twisted around to make it sound like a racial comment toward Barak and you pull the race card.

This race, just like any other one, will be about everything but the real issues. Even if people can get past the fact that one guy is black and one guy is old, then they are going to want to debate about how fast they can bring the troops home or how they can get universal health care or they can end global warming. None of that shit is going to happen and we know it. The war in Iraq will end when it ends. No fucking politician can decide the end to a war unless they just walk away from it, and we all know that neither of them is going to do that. And the troops won't come home when the war is over. Most will, but a lot won't. And you can't provide affordable health care to people that can't afford it. You might could come up with some piece of shit plan that is cheap and no one wants, but wtf does that solve?

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Anhil8tor - 08-27-2008

if obama doesn't win black people will claim he didn't win because he was black, not because he has shitty policies. The funny thing is all the black people that will claim he didn't win because of color are the same ones that will be voting him for presdient without a clue of what he stands for.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

I don't think Obama gives a shit as long as he wins.What she say is irelevant.She'll be 70after 2 Obama terms in office.She'll be to old for it.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 08-27-2008

BIRD33 Wrote:I don't think Obama gives a shit as long as he wins.What she say is irelevant.She'll be 70after 2 Obama terms in office.She'll be to old for it.

Well, I think that what she did last night was set the stage to run against him in 2012 if he is elected in 2008. She will rip him to pieces on how he didn't do ANYTHING that he promised everyone when he beat her in 2008.

She knows he can't do these things that he is promising because she knows that she can't do them either.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 08-27-2008

BIRD33 Wrote:[SIZE="6"]I don't think Obama gives a shit as long as he wins.[/SIZE]

That should be his campaign slogan.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

Flumper Barflusterbutt Wrote:Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on that. I think the two most prominent things that this race will be about are race and age. And for the dumbasses like you, discrimination based on race is no more or less stupid than discrimination based on age.

You can joke about how old he is and that's fine. But let Anhilator make even a slight hint that could be twisted around to make it sound like a racial comment toward Barak and you pull the race card.

This race, just like any other one, will be about everything but the real issues. Even if people can get past the fact that one guy is black and one guy is old, then they are going to want to debate about how fast they can bring the troops home or how they can get universal health care or they can end global warming. None of that shit is going to happen and we know it. The war in Iraq will end when it ends. No fucking politician can decide the end to a war unless they just walk away from it, and we all know that neither of them is going to do that. And the troops won't come home when the war is over. Most will, but a lot won't. And you can't provide affordable health care to people that can't afford it. You might could come up with some piece of shit plan that is cheap and no one wants, but wtf does that solve?

The difference is we all get old.Nobody gets left out of that so making fun if that is making fun of everybody.The purpose of making fun of someones race is to undermine them just by their color and not based on their character.I'd vote for a 70 year old guy, not sure everyone would though.You have to be dumb as shit to compare ageism to racism like they are on the same level.Any old people get lynched in the last 100 years?Thats ridiculous and a way to make yourself feel less guilty for racist remarks.

How can this race be like all the others when a democrat has to fight to win Pennsylvania, a solidly democrat state?Whats the problem in PA you say?Baracks black, plain and simple.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Anhil8tor - 08-27-2008

100 years?

Give me a break. Any of your relatives slaves?

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 08-27-2008

BIRD33 Wrote:The difference is we all get old.Nobody gets left out of that so making fun if that is making fun of everybody.The purpose of making fun of someones race is to undermine them just by their color and not based on their character.I'd vote for a 70 year old guy, not sure everyone would though.You have to be dumb as shit to compare ageism to racism like they are on the same level.Any old people get lynched in the last 100 years?Thats ridiculous and a way to make yourself feel less guilty for racist remarks.

How can this race be like all the others when a democrat has to fight to win Pennsylvania, a solidly democrat state?Whats the problem in PA you say?Baracks black, plain and simple.

Yeah you are right. Those old people never do get taken advantage of. I hope the burglars and scam artists never get the idea to prey on them. Or the crackheads don't figure out how easy it would be to sneak into their house and kick the shit out of them the day after they cash their social security check.

Oh wait, that's right, not every single old person in the last 50 years has been murdered or attacked or swindled out of their money. But every single black person has been lynched. What was I thinking.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

Anhil8tor Wrote:100 years?

Give me a break. Any of your relatives slaves?

Ever see the movie Missipippi burning asshole?What year was that?

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Anhil8tor - 08-27-2008

BIRD33 Wrote:Ever see the movie Missipippi burning asshole?What year was that?

So all "based on true story" movies are 100% accurate?


I'm guessing none of your relatives were slaves right?

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 08-27-2008

Anhil8tor Wrote:100 years?

Give me a break. Any of your relatives slaves?

Well, what's funny about it, is that Obama's not a decendent from the slaves of Africa. His father was from Kenya. That's where the slave owners in Africa lived. They are the one that put the slaves on the ships and sold them to the Americans.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

Flumper Barflusterbutt Wrote:Yeah you are right. Those old people never do get taken advantage of. I hope the burglars and scam artists never get the idea to prey on them. Or the crackheads don't figure out how easy it would be to sneak into their house and kick the shit out of them the day after they cash their social security check.

Oh wait, that's right, not every single old person in the last 50 years has been murdered or attacked or swindled out of their money. But every single black person has been lynched. What was I thinking.

Whats the % of discrimination of black people to old people?Its not even close.

You idiots are missing the point.We all get old.We all arent black.You can't discriminate against yourself.

You two are so hung up on reverse racism while sitting back in your comfy offices with your high paying jobs, its ridiculous.All because you want to be guilt free when making your ni66er jokes.

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So I was watching the State of the Union last night.... - BIRD33 - 08-27-2008

Flumper Barflusterbutt Wrote:Well, what's funny about it, is that Obama's not a decendent from the slaves of Africa. His father was from Kenya. That's where the slave owners in Africa lived. They are the one that put the slaves on the ships and sold them to the Americans.

Case closed.Obama never experienced racism.Nobody is voting based on color.Thanks for clearing that up.

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