Biden, The DNC and more

I'm sure many of you were wondering where I was when Barack Obama texted and e-mailed the world that he'd selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate. Well, I was in New Jersey for a long weekend of baseball and music. It's now Tuesday so I doubt you need me to really break the Biden news to you. I actually had it on good information that Biden was going to be the pick roughly 24 hours before the announcement was made. I have sources, but like any good journalist, I won't disclose them.

A few weeks back I extolled the virtues of Evan Bayh as Obama's veep choice. A few things happened between then and the weeklong vacation in Hawaii where Obama apparently made up his mind on picking Biden. First off, the conflict between Russia and Georgia made it apparent Obama needed someone with real foreign policy chops to make the American public confident in the Democratic ticket's ability to deal with such issues. There's no better foreign policy voice in the Democratic Party than Biden. Second, there were some rumblings in the press about Bayh's wife having ties to the boards of several large corporations at a time in which large corporations aren't exactly popular. Finally, and maybe most importantly, John McCain has closed a significant gap in national polling based on junkyard dog-style campaigning against Obama. In choosing Biden, Obama decided he needed to fight fire with fire and someone as even-keel as Bayh just wouldn't work.

So the pick is Biden, and he wasted no time on Saturday at his joint appearance with Obama, immediately bashing McCain as offering a third Bush term. This is what I like about Biden, and what I've always liked about him as long as I've been following politics. He's one of the few people in the Democratic Party that could be put in this position and show just as much balls on the Senate floor as he will on the campaign trail. Biden is impassioned about Democratic politics, about his beloved home state of Delaware, about serving and protecting the United States, and his incredible resume speaks volumes about his ability to bring about the change Obama desperately wants. I do feel in many ways the Biden pick is something of a lifetime achievement award for a man who has worked so tirelessly for so many years.

I can't wait for the VP debate on October 2, especially since Biden will almost certainly eviscerate either the bumbling Mitt Romney or the unknown Tim Pawlenty.

Alright, so the glorious week known as the Democratic National Convention began last night. I was still in transit from NJ when much of the action was going on, but I got a chance to see replays of the two big moments of the night. First, Ted Kennedy gave an inspiring, rousing address to the convention that defied his harrowing condition. Then, Michelle Obama assuaged any fears about her readiness to be First Lady by giving a beautiful speech about the difficulties of growing up in Chicago and becoming successful through hard work and determination. I came away from the speech so excited about the possibility of watching her be First Lady for four years. She may be the first First Lady of my lifetime that I've actually liked.

Tonight Mark Warner will deliver the Keynote Address and then Hillary Clinton will again try to unite the party by headlining the night. I am very anxious to see what she says.

That's all for now. I will be returning to school on Sunday so there will definitely be more frequent posts here going forward.