Charlie_Brennan's Blog

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is being widely applauded for a vice presidential selection that shows an awareness of the importance of an experienced partner on the ticket, a man who knows not only how to get legislation passed in the Senate, but also is a learned hand in the foreign policy department. 

But, is Delaware Sen. Joe Biden someone who will get Obama -- who is in a neck-and-neck battle right now with Arizona Sen. John McCain -- elected?

I don’t know, and neither do you. 

But here is a nutshell version of a conversation I had this morning with a voter whom both candidates would look at as potentially “in play” for either side.

 I was on my weekly Sunday run with a running partner whose politics are nuanced enough that I honestly don’t even know with which party he is registered. Square in the middle of the Boomer generation, I know that he voted for George W. Bush at least the first time around. He used to have long hair, and he still plays in a rock band. I know that he is a gun owner, and not particularly of the bitter variety Obama famously riffed on at that San Francisco fund-raiser. I know my friend is also appalled – I think he’s on record with this – with the way the Iraq war has largely been conducted. 

So that’s his background. 

On our run this morning, we got to the Biden selection, and my friend said, “This pick has made my adoration for Obama…‘’ 

(And maybe we had not previously talked enough about this upcoming election, because for one, I had no idea that he had, up to that point, “adored” Obama. And, because his overall political portfolio is complex enough – in my eyes – I had no idea how this sentence was going to end). 

Here’s how it ended. 

“…has plummeted dramatically.” 

He went on to talk about Biden’s notorious remark, while still a presidential candidate himself, that Obama “was the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” We then talked about other things Biden had said. Such as, that he didn’t see the presidency as a place for “on-the-job” training, suggesting that that’s exactly what Obama would be receiving, should he make it to the White House. And, that Biden had said, while still a candidate himself, that he could imagine himself on a ticket with, and not against McCain. 

My friend’s assessment, it seemed, is that Obama has made a tremendous compromise by selecting someone who is a loose cannon’s loose cannon, who has been disrespectful of Obama’s compelling run for the Oval Office, and thereby is now showing a propensity to do whatever it’s going to take to get elected. 

He didn’t end our jog by saying he’s now voting for McCain. He didn’t say how we now plans to vote, and I didn’t ask. But he is an independent minded voter, seemingly there for either side to claim, who is now sounding less inclined to vote for Obama -- solely and specifically for his picking of Biden. 

Also, our chat barely touched on the whole issue of, exactly how many young, “change”-enamored 20-something voters did Obama potentially lose by tapping a three-decade veteran of Washington who is 65 years old and hardly synonymous with anything reasonably resonating of “change?" 

Obama will enjoy something of a bounce at the polls out of this week’s events in Denver. This would have been true with or without Biden as the pick. 

But, on Friday, McCain is expected to name his running mate. And next week, the Republicans will have their days in the spotlight at St. Paul, likely resulting in a similar bounce for McCain. The bounces, bouncing up against one another, may well cancel one another out and leave the two where they stand, neck-and-neck. 

But I know of at least one vote it appears Obama lost with the Biden pick. We’ll see how many more he lost, or, maybe, won, on Nov. 4.