The Final Democratic Predictions For VP! And is Joe Back In VP Saddle?
Logic has never mattered much in Presidential politics, but I will offer you my forecast and explain what will happen. Please save this column as an example of the occasional failure of my political forecasts. Or, if I am right. eat your heart out.
First of all, look at Obama’s weak spots - perception of inexperience, especially in a troubled world. That’s why the Governors of Virginia and Kansas will not be the Veep nominees. The Senator from Indiana is an unlikely choice. The nominee will be either Senator Joe Biden or…..Hillary Clinton! The reasoning: Obama finds himself in a close race, with McCain closing in and making headway in key battleground states. This is the year, as I’ve said before, that VP is important to both candidates. If Obama’s campaign should select a politician who is a novice with a lack of skilled diplomatic experience, he may find a tough road ahead.
So watch for either Biden or a Hillary surprise.
On the Republican side, Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman is very much back in the picture. Lieberman is very close to McCain and offers a chance for McCain to buttress the “change” argument by claiming that stability is more important than change.
Right now, the voters are in a changing mood. They want more specificity. They want it now.
By the way, Obama will announce his choice by Thursday at 9 a.m.
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For those of you who want some extra fodder for the 08 race - I will file daily reports from the Democratic Convention in Denver on this site and the Republican party in St. Paul. I’ll be there to report for KYW Newradio, and to join CN 8’s live coverage in prime time. I will also appear on the Smerconish show. Listen, watch, and go online. It’s only your future we’re talking about.
Biden is saying “I’m not the guy”. Can we trust that as being true or is he just buying time? Clinton would indeed be a surprise and may be why Obama was so willing to allow a roll call vote for Clinton at the convention.
As a Democrat, I think Lieberman would be an excellent choice for McCain however he (McCain) risks loosing the far right altogether.
Does McCain “buttress” the change argument by picking Lieberman,or does that just highlight the point ? Reardless,I’m done with this VP stuff.No one votes for a President based on his VP.
We’ll be lucky to hit forty on this post unless the ” cleverness” starts early.
Leo’s going to be typing before he gets through the first paragraph.Punctuation,very debatable phrasing etc etc.Larry’s already got the gold,could be going for a lifetime award.
YBP is right about the punctuation in the first paragraph. Larry, won’t anyone proofread for you?
Obama has a tough choice. It’s hard to campaign on change but turn to some Washington insider for global experience. I thought Biden might seem like enough of a maverick that he’d fill that role. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I think Lieberman can’t possibly be the choice for McCain for a few simple reasons. First, he isn’t a Republican and therefore wouldn’t be eligible to be on the ballot with McCain in many states. Second, is the Republican machine going to accept an erstwhile Democrat as the President of the Senate? He would get to cast tiebreaking votes. Would he go along with the Republican agenda? Third, he has the charisma of a tin of sardines. A tin of sardines that’s been sitting in the sun for a few days. And, finally, although he’s a practicing Jew, he would completely alienate the fundamentalists on the right, many of whom still blame his people for “murdering” their messiah. I can already see their protest posters showing pro-choice Lieberman nailing a fetus to a cross.
I’ll look forward to the daily blog entries from Denver and St. Paul. While you’re in Denver, I hope you are able to do some research on the progress of the FREE AIR movement at higher altitudes, which, of course, is called the FREE THIN AIR movement up there.
Leo, you are way off base on Lieberman. Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians have a lot in common and mutal repsect for each other. I know Joe Lieberman and the country got a good taste of him when he ran for VP, with a lot of conservatives wishing he was in our party. As far as nailing fetuses to the cross, well that’s just an ignorant way to insult both Jews and Christians, but you are obviously an ignorant self absorbed person, so no big surprise there.
George, you apparently don’t get out much to see the fundies’ anti-choice protests and the posters they wave at passers by. Nice attempt at ad hominem attack, though. I give you a .5 degree of difficulty, but only a 2.5 for execution. You’re in last place.
I thought the “cleverness” would take over soon but instead we get an early volley.Fire away boys,liven this thing up.
YBP, Hutton Gibson called. He wanted to have a word with George about the relationship between conservative fundamentalist Christians and Jews. While I don’t doubt that many “Christians” are on the same page when it comes to the Ten Commandments, etc., I’m talking about the intolerant vocal wing of the conservative “Christian” movement, which was so important to Bush that Rove developed a strategy to mobilize them with wedge issues. Anyone who’s actually seen a demonstration at a Planned Parenthood clinic–my mother-in-law works at one–will know that posters of the type I referenced are common.
Don’t know much about Hutton Gibson,other than moving his family to Australia to protest(avoid?) Vietnam.I tend to be on the Liberal side (though that has been challeneged recently ) when it comes to social issues & find those protests a bit much.In other words,I’ll sit this one out.
YBP, Hutton is a holocaust denier and a vocal splinter Catholic who, with his brethren, believes the Second Vatican Council was a Jewish plot against Catholics. In other words, his views about Jews are on the same wavelength as Borat’s, only without the irony and satire. He, unlike Jimmy Carter, is what I’d call an anti-Semite.
Maybe he’ll be McCain’s VP candidate.
I can’t see Biden as a good choice for Obama. I stick with Kathleen Sebelius as the choice. Executive experience and a woman. Both necessary to bolster Obama.
Romney is the only viable choice for McCain. Liebermann would be a fatal choice, best friend or not. Too liberal for an already centrist McCain. It would paint Johnny Mc a true maverick but it would also spell doom in November. He can give Joe a prime Cabinet post.
Leo-Thanks for the info but why the cheap shot at McCain ? First he was living it up at Hanoi Hilton & now he’s a vicious anti-semite.It could be you’re getting nervous about Obama,you see his lead slipping away & you’re just lashing out.
OOOJ-It won’t be Lieberman & I agree,he’ll get a nice Cabinet post if he wants it.Romney seems to be a lock.Why am I still talking about the VP choices ? Larry sucked me in again.
YBP, what cheap shot at McCain? Hutton Gibson would make a lot of people in the intolerant wing of the GOP base happy, much happier than Lieberman or Ridge would make them. I never called him an anti-Semite. Read more carefully please, and don’t put words in my mouth.
Yesterday it was all over the news that Obama was to make his Veep choice today.
Well word has it that he has made his selection. The only problem is that he isn’t going to tell everyone for another day or two. What a freakin Putz…..I know Larry was waiting with much anticipation to get the text message from our lord and savior today but it seems like Obama wants to prolong the “excitement”…..
Why is it that the closer we get to the election the more I want to put a bullet in my head?
You referred to Hutton Gibson as an anti-semite & suggested he’d be a good VP choice for McCain.Not much of a leap there.Be more careful with your wording.
Right, a good VP choice for McCain to appeal to the intolerant element of the GOP base. It’s not rocket science.
And McCain would want this guy ? Cheap shot.Maybe you were distracted by a homo-erotic fantasy or something.
Leo was distracted by the blood of the lambs of God on his mother-in-laws hands. That blood never washes off Leo, and the screams and cries of the unborn will be with her and your family for eternity.
Sometimes I wonder if all of those who escaped their mothers’ wombs in one piece are really worthwhile having around.
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Macbeth. ACT II Scene 2.
Joe Biden will not be announced as VP on Saturday. He’ll go back to Purple Parrot in Rehobeth Beach, drink and think about what a Biden presidency could have been like.
Perhaps Obama will ask him to “borrow” speaches from other politicians for him.
Larry, how do I contact your On Line Bookstore and check on why order has not shipped in 3 weeks? There is no contact info.
And when he leaves the Purple Parrot,he’ll go to Red Square for dinner & channel his inner Hamlet:
To sleep,perchance to dream
ay,there’s the rub
for in that sleep of death what dreams may come……it’s like Ms.Yankee always says,That Shakespeare,he’s got an answer for everything.
YFAP, LOL
Gail Collins nails how silly Lieberman would be as a choice:
Lieberman is certainly capable of dumping everything he has ever believed in and assuring the anti-choice, anti-union, anti-government folk that he is on their team. But then the magic fades and all you’ve got is a conservative Republican who likes the environment teamed with a guy who will do anything to move up. If that’s all you’re looking for, you might as well take Mitt Romney.
And, George, the unborn can’t scream, especially when they’re little blobs of cells. Check your science on that one.
Uh, that second paragraph should be quoted as well.
It appears the FREE AIR movement is being co-opted.Flying past a store in Old City & I saw a sign for Free Aaron (or maybe Arron).Had another Kurt Vonnegut moment.
Hillary of America may rise as Obama weakens, but as for McCain, I think he will pick a woman, not sure exactly whom.
PR, McCain is less concerned about being PC than Obama. Watch numbers jump when he names Romney next Friday (or drop if he doesn’t)
Obama needs to pick a woman (Sebelius) because of perceived snub of Shrillary. He must pander to woman like he does to all other groups.
As I predicted,this one will struggle to hit forty.Even the fire fight couldn’t save it.
Sooner or later, the media may actually focus on substantive positions instead of the gossipy junk it’s been dwelling on, such as who will pick which potential VP candidate and why and whether Paris Hilton is good in a commercial. I think most Americans will have second thoughts when they see that McSame is BUSH III: THE EMPTY PANTRY OF WAR AND FAMINE.
p.s. On the gossipy front, McCain has stated that he doesn’t know how many houses he and Cindy own. That sure makes him look like he’s in touch with what’s going on.
You sound a bit conflicted,Leo.You don’t want to read gossipy stuff but do wish to pass it along.A mixed message,to be sure.Sounds like something Backtrack Obama would say.
Neither McCain or Obama has a clue how “the other half” lives. They may once have known but they’ve long forgotten.
I suspect that McCain’s policies may be closer to Bush than Obama but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Most liberals (and Obama is clearly included in that group) have a rather rose colored glasses approach to their perspective. They think the US operates in a vacuum. As long as there is “peace and prosperity” (to quote our favorite terrier) everything is peachy keen.
YBP, the gossipy stuff is what the media is about. It’s what this blog is about. Edwards’ affair and McSame’s inability to recall how many houses his wife and Keating have bought for him.
OOOJ, it’s the policies of the current administration that seem oblivious to the place of the US as a citizen in the world. Bush’s approach has been to trample instead of to build consensus, and it’s been to borrow tons of money from China while continuing to run up a massive trade deficit. I think that Bush’s policies in these respects are woefully ignorant of the fact that the US does not operate in a vacuum.
Leo, I commend your efforts to keep this thread or blog for that matter alive. It is sad however that your efforts only amount to a “Paris Hilton” like attack on McCain. I mean Keating buying McCain’s houses cm’on fella you can do better than that…… We all know you don’t want a McCain in the White House but your argument falls way short of convincing us who sit on the fence. Obama has the same problem. He’s in the final quarter of a game he really thought he had no chance to win and all of the sudden the only thing standing between him and immortality is some old guy who won’t even use a teleprompter. Now he’s using the number of houses McCain owns as a tool. I’ll tell you who’s a tool, it’s Obama.
Sometimes when you are the one chasing the front runner, life gets more defined and you don’t worry about losing. It’s when you have a lead that all of your doubts start to come to the surface.
If he had a brain in his head, he would have said, “It doesn’t matter because the only one I need to help the American people is on Pennsylvania Avenue.” But, under “fire,” he comes up with, “Uh, ask my accountants.”
Is it just me, or is it richly ironic that four years ago the GOP couldn’t get over the fact that Kerry was married to an heiress and owned several houses? I guess they just need a photo of McCain windsurfing now.
Bush’s trampling tactics and lack of consensus building prove 2 things.
1. Our so-called allies, whom we have repeatedly bailed out (literally and figuratively), don’t have the stones to fight terrorists.
2. The US has made a stand, like it or not, and now we have to pay the price of unpopularity and fighting terrorism alone.
John Kerry even looks confused. Swiftboat revelations were the best thing to ever happen in America as it prevented a Ketchup presidency based on flip-flops and replacing Bush.
The polls now show a dead heat, even though McCain has largely had a lackluster campaign. Once (if) he gets his act together and you account for the fact that about 5-10% of poll respondents are lying because they fear being classified as racist, McCain is probably up by roughly 5%.
With Republican convention after Labor Day, and Obama giving his adress in a 75,000 person stadium, reinforcing the rock star empty suit sterotype that has gotton traction, I’d say we’re going to have four more years of rich white guys who dont know how many houses they own! And as Martha says: that’s a good thing!
Plus- as an added bonus, a drugged up stepford wife with Husky Dog eyes as first lady- what a great country!
OOOJ,
1. Our allies didn’t want to invade Iraq, which had no ties to the terrorists. They were the prudent ones, and we Americans are saddled with the burden of the Bush family’s vendetta against Saddam.
2. You forgot Poland. We do not have to fight terrorism alone. We do have allies; however, we might do better in persuading them to contribute additional forces if we had anything resembling a coherent approach to the issue. Instead we have to put toiletries into a ziploc bag when we fly (because ziploc bags prevent explosions!). Bush is foreign policy and domestic security disaster.
3. China owns you. Thank Dubya and the Wal Mart consumers who voted him two terms.
Don’t blame Bush for manufacturing moving out of the US, blame the unions.
Short of larger tariffs on imports or trade limitations on countries with low hourly wages, how do you expect Bush or the Democratic Congress to fix this? It’s economics, dude. If the go to higher tariffs, trade restrictions and/or other measures, who is going to foot the bill? We are.
Leo , not everyone is as quick as you. Some of us try to answer a question honestly. So his family has quite a few holdings, what is the big deal? He has probably not even seen half the places he owns. It’s guys like you who try to imply how out of touch one could be if they don’t even know what their holdings are. The real definition of success is when you don’t know how much you own.
Neither Bush nor unions take all the blame for manufacturing leaving the U.S. No one can compete with $.90/day labor. In the last two months I’ve seen NAFTA in operation in Mexico. In many areas it has lead to a new middle class with competative wage scales. In a few years, Mexico too, will fall to China or Sri Lanka or wherever. If we want to change that, we will all have to make the sacrifice and pay more for what we want-made here.
FJ, right. Blame Bush and people who buy cheap crap at Mao*Mart, who voted him two terms. Like I said. Borrowing money from China to pay for Iraq, etc., and the increased spending under the Republican Congress of 2001-2006, essentially put money into the pockets of the rich (e.g., Halliburton and KBR shareholders) at the expense of the rest of us. Scandalous.
Ed, that’s a whacked definition of success. If you don’t know how many homes you have, you’re 1) ignorant or 2) suffering from Alzheimers.
LB, you are sounding like a bitter old man. You, like JR (and doesn’t that put you in good company) can blame Bush for everything if you want. That’s your opinion. In this case it’s not right, but you can believe whatever you want.
The unions are partly to blame, FJ, because for 50 years they have been artificially driving up the labor rate in the US to justify their own existance. Witness auto makers, airlines, high tech manufacturing, etc. Competition came in from significantly lower labor markets and forced US based companies to manufacture off shore to compete. American laborers had grown accustom to a standard of living that could no longer be supported in the US market. Japan flooded the market with cars and tvs long before China, LB. Do you have Alzheimers?
If we put higher tariffs, restrict trade by trying to balance trade deficit or some other trade regulation to bring back jobs to the US as Obamonimics proposes, you will further hurt the US economy as consumers are paying 3X for a tv or car or shoes or laptop computer. It will send the economy into a tailspin. Is that preferable to boycotting Walmart? Not in my book.
The cheap labor boat has sailed in this country. We have given up that fight. We are now a country of innovation and intellectual property. We create and let others make. We are a service industry nation. We are in real jeopardy of losing our dominant position to China. Its a paradigm shift that’s likely irreversible. If your concern is China, they too are seeing an increasing standard of living and eventually they will be subplanted as the low labor country. Vietnam, Eastern Europe and Caribbean Islands are already vying for that position.
Blame Bush. I think not. Blame him for a needless war in Iraq. Blame him for strained relationships in the world. Don’t be so naive to blame him for China and Walmart. Now you are starting to sound like an emptysuit…
LB, the drain of U.S. manufacturing has been going on for 30 years. It’s not a new phenominon. We have indeed priced ourselves out of jobs but, it’s not as simple as Bush and unions.