Okay, I lost the "who’s going to be the Veep" contest. Long before the insiders were whispering about Wesley Clark, I had determined that the Obama ticket needed a war hero who had spoken out about Iraq.
But that’s my own peace-hawk feelings about the race. Considering that the state of Iraq is now merely nightmarish instead of hellish, and considering that Obama might not even get us out of that damn sand-pit, this campaign probably won’t be the all-Iraq all the time show.
But I think the Biden choice is a work of genius.
Here’s my thinking. We all knew all along that the Veep would have to be a white guy. Now, I myself have voted for a presidential ticket devoid of white-guys (Socialist, 1992), but the part of me who was told in tremorous tones by Miss Lewis, the 1st/2nd-grade teacher, that good Christian white people would soon be a minority in this country (the best country BTW), feels a vertiginous barrier at the thought of no white-guys at all in the White House. I mean, c’mon, don’t you think we deserve at least one? Being a white-guy is all about deserving.
So that’s why Senator Clinton never had a shot at the Veep slot, even though she would have been a brilliant attack dog for the party, for the campaign, and the country in general. Biden though, has an attack-dog ability that’s nearly comparable to Ms.Clinton, and by that I mean that he’s willing to take some broad sweeps with that poisonous tongue of his. And unlike Clinton, he isn’t hated by every Rush-head in America. At least not yet.
But I’m not done yet! There’s more!
As you might have heard, there’s a horrible race problem in this country. That a black man was nominated by the Democratic Party (by the skin of his teeth), says some great things about how far we’ve come.
But let’s not forget the 30% of hate. 30% of the population, any population, is going to be vicious, hateful assholes. It was 30% who elected Hitler. It was 30% who elected Bush, and it’s 30% who support him now. Every election comes down to mobilizing the hateful 30% against the 30% of tolerance, and getting the 30% of swing-vote-apathy to make up their minds.
Do you recall the national elections of 2004, where the Republicans swept the congressional races? It’s because many states had ballot initiatives regarding gay marriage. The 30% of hate frothed over this. Essentially every mega-church hate-monger in the country showed up at the polls to put the wrath of God down on those gays. And while they were in the booth, they just happened to vote Republican.
Remember, love is all fine and dandy, but hate always wins in the end. Think of it this way: It takes twenty years of unbroken love to raise a good kid, and only a couple minutes to beat them to death in a back alley.
Obama can’t do anything about the 30% of hate. He should just write them off. You can’t make Americans better people. His secret so far has been to mobilize and inspire the 30% of tolerance to a degree we have never seen before. That just might, maybe, cancel out the advantage the 30% of hate will give the Republicans at the polls in November.
The race is going to come down to the 30% swing-vote-apathy block.
And that’s where Biden comes in.
Remember that comment Biden made, back at the beginning of the campaign, the one that’s hardly mentioned by the media right now? You know, how Obama is all "Clean, bright, and articulate?" It wasn’t a particularly hateful remark, simply the sort of patronizing petite racism familiar to all those Americans who’re upset about rap music.
By making Biden Veep, Obama has created a narrative of redemption. All those Americans who were unsure about a black-guy, who still haven’t got over the novelty, and have come to know Obama the same way they know the black guy in their office, they now have an image of someone who has gone through the same process.
Biden is the first penguin pushed off the iceberg. If the leopard seal doesn’t eat him, then the 30% swing-vote-apathy will see that it’s okay to like Obama.
Now let’s get our votes in on McCain, shall we? If he gets suckered into the identity politics game and nominates Secretary Rice, then he has partially neutralized his own great advantage with the 30% of hate, while tying himself to the albatross of the Bush administration.
I think he’s going to go for a party insider. A white-guy and a religious conservative. Someone who’s not a senator (there’s too many of those running around already), someone who’s young or at least young-looking, and someone who’s as rabid an attack dog that’s ever bitten a mailman.
Ralph Reed comes to mind, but a southern Republican governor is more likely. Someone like Jed Bush perhaps?
