Joe Biden: The anti-Dick Cheney
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010I have to give my brother credit for this one. He came up with the phrase a couple of weeks ago, before the current Sunday talk show shots by the former VP and the twit who currently holds the office.
First off, let us review some history. How did Dick Cheney become Vice-President of the United States of America? Well, while George W. Bush was cleaning up in the GOP primaries for the 2000 Presidential election, his team started thinking about a VP pick. First they looked at the man at the top of the ticket. A popular governor of one the largest and most populous states, a successful business career in the private sector, a former fighter pilot (flying an all weather interceptor, with a reputation for being tricky to fly, in the Gulf of Mexico during the Cold War), and was the son of former Vice-President and President, George H.W. Bush. Given all that, the thought was that he could be stronger in foreign policy, so the decision was made to shore that up with the VP pick. That leads us to Dick Cheney, with a very impressive foreign policy resume, including serving as Secretary of Defense.
Ok, now let us skip ahead about eight years. The democrats are about to turn the conventional wisdom on its ear and nominate, not Hillary Rodham Clinton, but some unknown first term Senator from a fly over state, as their Presidential candidate. Let’s review the resume of Barack Hussein Obama. Harvard Law, pretty good there, but what did he do with it? Well, he never held a private sector job. He was elected to the Illinois state senate after getting his two opponents in the primary removed on a technicality at the last minute. Once in the state senate, his most common vote by far was “present.” Then he was elected to the US Senate after the sealed divorce records of his opponent were “somehow” obtained and leaked to a pro-Obama journalist. Once in the Senate, he immediately started his run for the President’s office, spending less than 200 days actually performing his $175,000 a year job as a US Senator. The democrats had a candidate with a painfully thin resume, and absolutely zero foreign policy experience. So who did they pick for his running mate? Yup, Joey Biden. The Senator who was washed out of the primaries as soon as the first batch of voters got to express their views on the subject. The same Senator Biden whose last run for the President’s office was derailed when his history of plagiarism was exposed. Joe Biden, the one US Senator who only served in the leadership roles he could not be denied because of his time in office.
Joe Biden, who has singular reputation in Washington, D.C. for embarrassing himself, and his party, pretty much every time he opens his mouth (although the teleprompter adlib at the Air Force Academy was pretty good). Joe Biden, who as a long and spectacular career of being flat out wrong on just about anything he opens his mouth about.
So what did Joe Biden add to the ticket? The only thing that makes sense is that Barack Hussein Obama was secure in knowing that Joey Biden would never, ever upstage him. Obama is a more than a bit like the fictional character, Zaphod Beeblebrox, who said,” If there’s anything around here more important than my ego, I want it caught and shot now!” Where Dick Cheney was selected as Vice-President for his experience and gravitas, Joe Biden was selected for his lack of experience and lack of gravitas. He is the Anti-Dick Cheney.