The Anchoress
STACLU shot this in an email asking, “what is Biden thinking?”
Maybe Biden is thinking he does not want to be veep, after all. Let’s face it, he’s in a comfort zone. He’s been in the Senate for a few decades; it’s home. He likes his commute to Delaware – it’s probably a peaceful part of his day – and he has his committees, his ways of doing things. For all that his political leanings and ideas are not in sync with mine, I’ve always had a soft spot for Biden, and I think perhaps he’s not really into this intense scrutiny of his every word at this point in his life. He’d have to move to DC, live in the Naval Observatory. Perhaps the offer was so complimentary he couldn’t turn it down, but now he regrets it. I don’t get any sense that he is looking to tangle with his church, either.
Or, perhaps he is about to be Eagleton’d and he is laying the groundwork. I mean, it’s odd that Biden has not released his medical records yet.
I’m not the only one wondering, either. But would the Clintons come in and save Obama? They’d have good reasons pro and con. Save him and put him in their debt? But then Hillary must wait 8 more years to run for President. Let him fall and he’s out of the picture for 2012 (Dems are notorious for pushing aside failed candidates) and that year? She’ll have four years to pick off Palin in that time, and it would allow her to become the indisputed (if not official) Dem spokesperson for the Senate.
By the way, just my opinion, but I think it would be a very terrible move on the part of the Obama Camp if they ditched Biden for Hillary. It would scream “desperation;” it would once-again emphasize that without the Clintons the Democrats have no bench (recall – earlier this year I called Obama the “Moses of the Dem party” because he had freed them from the Pharaohs Clinton and allowed people to vote for someone else.) Hillary’s entrance would immediately overshadow Obama, AND – most fatally – it would be exactly the sort of cynical “insult to women” that the Obama Camp claimed John McCain made by bringing in Sarah Palin. “Hey, women! Come running back here! No, we don’t really want Hillary, but we know you’ll run if we dangle her!”
It’s going to be very interesting to see what Friday will bring after everyone stops campaigning for a day, for the anniversary of 9/11, and The One has his meeting with The Don.
UPDATE: Okay, if I’ve said all this, I may as well say what I really think: I am not certain Sen. Obama actually wants this job, either. I keep remembering what he said when he first got elected to the senate, that he in no way had the experience to be running for President. Then he promptly ran for president. But I don’t think he thought it would go this far. I think he thought he’d make a good start on a future run, maybe even be the bottom of a Hillary ticket, whereupon he would be ready to sail into office in 8 years with veep experience. But the gaga/adoring media, and Hillary’s own gaffes, (and maybe his own surprised ego) coupled with his charisma switched the trajectories on him. I have felt for several weeks that he is now holding on with both hands yelling “noooooooooo – this is not what I’d planned.” I suspect that is why he chose Biden, who did nothing for the ticket, and I suspect it is why he keeps making surprisingly stupid mistakes. Subconsciously, I think he knows he’s not ready for the biggest job in the world. Just MHO.
UPDATE II: On Letterman, Obama digs his whole deeper and wider. He didn’t mean to call Palin the pig…he was calling her the lipstick! Got that? Now she’s a cheap cosmetic adjustment.
UPDATE III: Ewwwww! Ewwwwwwww! I couldn’t make it 50 seconds of this! Ewwwww…I feel dirty!
Ed Morrissey wonders about Obama going to the Clintons at this late date.
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