Obama Names Biden VP

Joe Biden (D-Delaware)

Resume:

• Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate
• Member of the Judiciary Committee
• Failed presidential run in 1988 -- accusations of plagiarizing parts of stump speech from British Labour party derailed campaign
• Failed run in 2004
• 2008 campaign -- most notable debate line: talking about Rudy Giuliani: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11"

Assets to the Obama Ticket:

• Adds foreign policy knowledge and gravitas to counter Obama's relative lack of experience with national politics
• His blue-collar roots in Scranton, PA may undercut Obama's alleged "eliteness" and attract the very voters that Hillary had so much success with in the primaries
• Can "go negative" against the McCain campaign more effectively than Obama can

Potential Detriments to the Obama Ticket:

• Can make Obama look unknowledgeable and inexperienced in comparison
• Is known to be a loose cannon -- most memorable campaign gaffe came when he described Senator Obama as "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy....a storybook."  He seemed to suggest that Obama's eloquence and cleanliness were anomalies in the African-American community.

McCain Mistake

Having locked up the Republican nomination, John McCain traveled to Iraq last week in an attempt to reaffirm his military aptitude.
While giving a speech in Baghdad, McCain McCain told reporters that Iran is training Al Qaeda operatives and sending them into Iraq. Senator Lieberman, who was on the podium next to McCain, stepped in to clarify:

Al Qaeda = Sunni

Iranian majority = Shiite

Iraqi majority = Shiite

In fact, just weeks ago Iranian President/madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made an amicable visit to Baghdad.

We already know that many American politicians are ignorant of the nuances of Sunni-Shiite relations in the Middle East (see this former Young Pundits post), but I expected more from McCain.

Obama Talks Race

In a characteristically powerful speech on race yesterday, Senator Barack Obama condemned the incendiary remarks of his former preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Rev. Wright is responsible for Obama's devotion to Christianity but has made controversial remarks about America's racial divides. A clip of Rev. Wright's most publicized sermon follows:


In his speech, Obama addressed Wright's remarks thusly:
"I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy...But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic...As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems "

Racial resentment and tension, Obama remarked, is not exclusive to the black community:
"I can no more disown [Rev. Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. "
"When [White Americans] are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."

There was no condescension in his tone. He was candid and spoke with high expectations of his audience:
"I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union."

Click here to view the full address:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=4104d9c83acfb43a3d072fee0e13fbdc80b87d96

Wait, Obama is Black?

Geraldine Ferraro, 1984 Vice Presidential candidate and former advisor to Hillary Clinton's campaign, said unapologetically that much of Barack Obama's success is due to his race.
She said:

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was
a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be
very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the
concept.

She became defensive when the Obama campaign condemned her remarks as "divisive " but eventually resigned from Clinton's campaign on Wednesday.

Any thoughts? Is Ferraro out of line? Is she right? Would Obama be as popular or successful if he was white? Is there any point in posing that hypothetical? He is black; it is a major part of his worldview and character. Period.

Governor Spitzer Resigns: a scandalous play-by-play

SPITZER STEPS DOWN

Part One: He did what!?

• On Monday, Spitzer admitted to involvement in a prostitution ring, standing besides his uncharacteristically disheveled wife, Silda Wall Spitzer.
• The charges were unclear, and reactions were disparate
• The floor of the stock exchange allegedly erupted in cheers. (As Attorney General, Spitzer crusaded against white collar crime, imprisoning many Wall St. CEO's -- thus the NYSE reaction).
• Spitzer's arch rival Joe Bruno, Majority Leader in the NY Senate, stayed out of the limelight. Bet he was downing champagne that night...
• It later becomes clear that Eliot had spent over $80,000 on high-class call girls over 10 years.

Part Two: Spitzer = Punchline

• Conan, Letterman, and Stewart didn't even NEED their newly returned writers -- sex scandals write their own stand-up.
• Letterman's countdown was "top 10 excuses for Eliot Spitzer"

The list ended with "I thought Bill Clinton legalized this years ago!"

• Jon Stewart (and the always lewd, always pregnant Samantha Bee) spun it this way
• You can even buy "Client No. 9" tee shirts online (click here!) -- for those who don't know, Eliot's alias at the prostitution service was client no. 9. Oh, how it must feel to be made into a punchline!!
  

Part Three: Patterson, who?

• After an aloof Tuesday, Spitzer resigned on Wednesday afternoon, accepting responsibility for his "failings."
• Lieutenant Governor David Patterson (who happens to be black and legally blind) will assume the governorship.
• Patterson is little known in Albany but is reputed to be amiable.

Once you go black....

Last night Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Mississippi primary by a decisive margin.

This victory comes after his weekend win in Wisconsin, but Clinton is undeterred, looking forward to the important Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

Pennsylvania boasts 188 potential delegates, and it will be an undoubtedly close race:

-Obama has more support in urban areas like Philadelphia

-Clinton's strongholds are blue-collar areas like Scranton (aka the home of Dunder Mifflin).

A Press Monstrosity

Barack Obama's gorgeous foreign policy adviser Samantha Power quit the senator's presidential campaign after calling Hillary Clinton a "monster."

"That's off the record," she said after the quip, but her The Scotsman published her quote nonetheless.

Papers across the country seem to be milking the story, particulalry because Power is such a babe:

Is this the press' effort to be tougher on Obama?

Primary Results: pt. 1

John McCain Clinches the Republican Nomination

His exceptance speech performance was as rousing and inspiring as an exhausted 71-year-old could be...

He will be traveling to the White House tomorrow to recieve George Bush's endorsment. Will that help or hurt him? Any thoughts?

Polls say that Obama has more of a chance to beat McCain than Hillary does (Possibly because he is so appealing to independents. Possibly because his consistent anti-war stance is so strikingly different from McCain's pro-surge proposal).