MyDD :: Biden strengthens rather than weakens Obama's message

The most painful thing about voting for Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary was that I wasn't voting for Joe Biden. I am on the frontpage of MyDD because Jerome was kind enough to let me blog for Biden once a week during the primaries, and it is a thrill to once again be supporting him for national office.

The one frequent criticism we heard about our Vice Presidential nominee when he was still a rumored pick was that he would undermine Senator Obama's message of change; that he's too much of a Washington insider. Don't you believe it for a second. Senator Biden has never lived in DC; he began commuting home to Delaware every night back in 1972 when his first wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident. Since mommy never came home for his two young boys, he said, daddy had to come home every night. This means that Biden has never owned or even rented a home in Washington, and that for the first 20 or so years of his time in the Senate, he was not a part of the DC social scene or media circuit. He never gave the Washington mentality the chance to grab hold of him. Even today, he is more familiar with public transportation and less exposed to the hyper-security atmosphere of DC than are most politicians, and has always kept himself walled off from the special interests.

And besides, if he were a same ol' same ol' DC politician rather than a regular guy, would he really tell reporters he had taken "a successful dump" where he "dropped everything" and ask them to help with his "second load"? Sounds to me more like something you'd hear from the Irish Catholic son of a working class salesman from Scranton who hasn't forgotten his roots, someone whose own son (an equally gracious man, I might add) is headed to Iraq in October. I'm not sure which is a better label: Regular Joe, or Statesman Biden. Either way, Barack Obama has once again shown good judgment and given us them both.

You want an agent of change? I got your agent of change, right here:

Joe Biden changed the situation in Europe and saved countless lives when he helped persuade Bill Clinton to stop genocide in the Balkans.

Joe Biden changed and improved security at home in America when he wrote the Clinton Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act and COPS Program.

Joe Biden changed and enhanced our civil liberties when, as a member of the first Senate Intelligence Committee, he helped write the original FISA legislation, a law President Bush has since abused and ignored.

Joe Biden changed the way we think about Supreme Court nominees when, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he successfully led the fight to keep Robert Bork off the Supreme Court and convinced his fellow Senators to approach the confirmation differently than they had approached previous confirmations.

Joe Biden changed and elevated the foreign policy discourse in this country when he was the first, and for a time only, `08 presidential candidate to offer a solid political plan for Iraq and when he frequently reminded us to remember Pakistan and Afghanistan - days before Pakistan descended into chaos.

Yes, it's true, Biden and Obama have cast differing votes on issues like FISA and the war funding. The Republicans are going to try to make an issue out of that, but let's not let them. Remember, Obama said he wanted a #2 who would challenge him, and there would be no challenge if the ticket were an echo chamber, a skinny guy and a yes man. When Republicans try to attack us for not nominating two clones, just remind the voters that surrounding our nominee would be giving them four more years of the same old same old, which must be why they criticize us - they WANT four more years of same old same old.

I can't tell you how jazzed or how excited I really am for America's future right now. Is Biden perfect? Of course not, and certain members of the Netroots have been rather prolific in the past about listing his flaws. But when it comes to issues of character, integrity, honesty, and policy, few in Washington come close. I'm an independent operator. I like to think and work for myself, and will probably never hold a corporate job or stick around for very long in the world of campaigns. I'm nobody's stooge - but I'll say this: I will carry Joe Biden's water any day.

When Senator Biden dropped out of the primaries after January's Iowa caucus, I didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell that he would actually be the VP, but there are times when one is happy to be wrong. It was then that I joined the Obama-Biden Facebook group, and it is now that I say, bravo, Barack Obama, bravo. You told us you have good judgment, and last night you proved it once again.

Hope, change, judgment, and experience: Obama-Biden, a new era for America. In a word (or three): YABBA DABBA DOOOOOO!!!!!