Bob Shrum
TheWeek.com
In 2000, when we were discussing vice-presidential choices with Al Gore, my partner Tad Devine conceded that Joe Lieberman would be an immediate hit; but he believed Lieberman would prove a long-term bust. He told Gore: “What you need is Mr. October, not Mr. August.”
Barack Obama got both when he picked Sen. Joe Biden. The Delaware Democrat immediately demonstrated that he was a happy warrior who could take the fight to McCain, stand up for Obama and connect with blue-collar voters and Catholics. Yet by late October, the conventional wisdom strangely had turned, devaluing Biden’s role and his appeal, and reporting that the supposedly gaffe-prone candidate had been hidden away after stating that Obama would be “tested” by a foreign crisis in his first few months in office.
Reporters have focused far more attention on Joe the Plumber than on Joe the Veep, Joe the Validator, Joe the Defender, Joe the Political Partner. McCain, who probably shouldn’t mention V.P. picks outside a confessional, scoffed at Biden last weekend as “the gift that keeps on giving”—despite the fact that Biden has helped deliver constituents and states and, hours from now, will help deliver the Presidency itself to Barack Obama. Standing behind McCain on the stage as he spoke, a sour-looking Cindy McCain didn’t even crack a smile. I suspect she knows the reality—of the race and of the value of the respective running mates.
Editor's Note: The following report comes to us from a pool reporter on the campaign trail with Sen. Joseph Biden. We share his latest dispatch:
John Broder
New York Times
Senator Biden stopped at a Kilwin's ice cream and candy shop in a shopping mall in The Villages, a huge residential complex near Lady Lake, Fla. Before he entered the shop, he stopped at gallery next door and signed the back of a painting of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson speaking with some of their aides. We couldn't hear any of his remarks.
Once inside the sweet shop, he ordered a single dip of chocolate chip on a sugar cone from Marilyn Fennell, who was working behind the counter. He then visited with a number of customers who crammed into the store.
It was difficult to make out much of the banter, but at one point he declared to someone, "I’m Joe – not the plumber – Joe the Biden." He asked one of the patrons, "Did ya vote already?" She replied that she had. "I love ya," he said and kissed her on the cheek.
Jack Gray
AC360 Associate Producer
Ah, democracy springs eternal. We’re already seeing it with early voting, for which Americans are turning out in record numbers. I walked by a long line the other day in midtown Manhattan and thought I might as well try to get a fresh story for AC360. But I got some strange looks from people – a few even ran away – when I asked if they wanted to appear on CNN to discuss what they were going to do when they got inside the booth. It turns out it was a line to get into a peep show.
I was finishing up a shopping trip to Saks Fifth Avenue today with Sarah Palin, about to go meet Joe Biden for his botox consultation, when it hit me. No, I didn’t forget to polish Anderson’s Emmys. Trust me, one does not make that mistake twice. What hit me is that Halloween is just a week away and I still haven’t decided on my costume. I’ve narrowed it down to either Tony Danza or Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.
Joe Klein
TIME.com
Barack Obama has prospered in this presidential campaign because of the steadiness of his temperament and the judicious quality of his decision-making. They are his best-known qualities. The most important decision he has made — the selection of a running mate — was done carefully, with an exhaustive attention to detail and contemplation of all the possible angles. Two months later, as John McCain's peremptory selection of Governor Sarah Palin has come to seem a liability, it could be argued that Obama's quiet selection of Joe Biden defined the public's choice in the general-election campaign.
But not every decision can be made so carefully. There are a thousand instinctive, instantaneous decisions that a presidential candidate has to make in the course of a campaign — like whether to speak his mind to a General Petraeus — and this has been a more difficult journey for Obama, since he's far more comfortable when he's able to think things through. "He has learned to trust his gut," an Obama adviser told me. "He wasn't so confident in his instincts last year. It's been the biggest change I've seen in him."
Clifford D. May
National Review Online Contributor
Joe Biden is taking a lot of heat for saying that, should his running mate become president, “it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy . . . we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
Politically, it probably wasn’t advisable for Biden to call attention to Obama’s youth and inexperience, and how those attributes may tempt America’s enemies to probe his responses to the kind of pressure no American political campaign provides. Practically, what Biden said does have the ring of truth.
And, to be fair, should John McCain become president, he too may be jabbed by dictators and demagogues eager to know if the United States remains a force to be reckoned with — or whether it’s become yesterday’s superpower.
Who is most likely to generate the kind of crisis Biden envisions? The mullahs who rule Iran have to be near the top of the list. “They hate us,” noted Reuel Gerecht, a former CIA operative, now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute — a Washington think tank that this week held a bipartisan forum titled “Beyond November: Terrorists, Rogue States, and Democracy.”
Gary Tuchman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent
Sarah Palin has something in common with Barack Obama; whether she (or he) like it or not. They inspire similar passion at their rallies.
While John McCain and Joe Biden are more workmanlike, the passion at Palin's rallies are similar to what we've seen for many months at Obama's. Her high national approval numbers have slipped, but that seems to only make many fans even more supportive.
I spent part of the day in the midst of a crowd of thousands at a Palin rally at the Richmond Virginia International Raceway. Most of her supporters were excited and very happy. But many also told me they were agitated at people like me because of "mainstream media bias."
I told all who wanted to listen our main obligation is to tell both sides of the story. They didn't all agree; but they still talked to me. And in my business, we certainly regard that as an encouraging sign.
Alexander Marquardt
CNN Political Producer
Joe Biden said in Tampa Wednesday that the McCain camp has "chosen to appeal to fear" in the wake of the economic downturn and called recent comments by Sarah Palin about Barack Obama "outrageous inferences."
Holding his first campaign rally in a week and a half, Biden said the McCain camp is trying "to take the low road to the highest office in the land," and that they chose to ignore the "intellectually honest" options of dealing with the economic crisis.
"The one they have chosen is to appeal to fear with a veiled question, who is the real Barack Obama?" said Biden in the University of South Flordia's Sun Dome arena. "To have a Vice Presidential candidate raise the most outrageous inferences – the ones that John McCain’s campaign is condoning – is simply wrong."
Palin this week has repeatedly attacked Obama’s character, accusing him of "palling around with terrorists," referring to Obama’s connection with the Weather Underground’s William Ayers.
"Folks, don’t be distracted, those attacks don’t hurt Barack Obama or me, they hurt you," said Biden. "Every single false charge and baseless accusation is an attempt to get you to stop paying attention to what’s going on in this country. Beyond the attacks, what is John McCain really offering?"
The Delaware senator called McCain "an angry man lurching from one position to another" and applauded questioners at Tuesday night’s town hall debate for ignoring recent attacks by Republicans on Obama.
"You didn't hear a single question about the ugly inferences and the unbecoming personal attacks launched by the McCain campaign on Barack Obama," said Biden. "Barack Obama showed again last night that he understands that these debates aren’t about Governor Palin and me, they aren’t about Barack Obama and John McCain, these debates, this election is about you."
Carl Bernstein
AC360° Contributor
Who won the Palin-Biden debate? Barack Obama, I suspect.
Who was the big loser? In an historic fortnight that had already underscored his erratic nature, John McCain.
The fact that Palin was able to string her sentences together last night – which she couldn’t manage to do in her unscripted interviews with Katie Couric - shows only how low McCain has strapped his presidential quest.
Sarah Palin’s task was an impossible one: to demonstrate that she is ready to be president of the United States. McCain put her in that impossible position; and her performance — all prep and no depth — demonstrated the bind he has put himself in.
Yes, he “energized the base” with his Hail Mary pick of Palin as a running mate. But he also demonstrated cynical disregard for the requirement of stable governance were he to be elected president, and then - through his incapacitation or death - Palin be called upon to exercise the powers of the presidency.
Just how scary a notion that is went on full display last night: She appeared to lack any semblance of the requisite depth, knowledge, or sense of history we should expect in a president or vice president; then she sought to excuse it by saying, “I’ve only been at this for five weeks.”
Mark Halperin
Editor-at-large & Senior analyst, TIME Magazine
The Page, TIME.com
Sarah Palin
Substance:
In a debate of mostly general questions, she chose never to be any more specific than necessary. Had some planned policy points she was keen to make, but such moments were few and fleeting. Benefited from the format, which invited simplicity and avoided confrontation.
Grade: B-
Style:
Chose to look directly at the camera most of the time rather than at Joe Biden, moderator Gwen Ifill or the live audience. Her days of intense rehearsal were apparent, but she was much smoother than in recent media interviews when unspooling canned lines and opinions. Was crisp and calm and kept her folksiness to a few short bursts but effectively unleashed her earthy, relatable charm at choice moments in a winning way.
Grade: B+
Offense:
Kept up a drumbeat of criticism against Barack Obama and, to a lesser extent, Biden — but produced no sound-bite moment and was unable to rattle her opponent. Most dramatically, she charged that the Democratic ticket wants to wave a "white flag of surrender" in Iraq. Firmly hit her campaign's main themes (Obama equals higher taxes and Washington business as usual). Ably brandished the opposition research on Obama's record and promises.
Grade: B
Hilary Rosen
CNN Contributor
Thank God we are not talking about Sarah Palin being a "woman" today and dissecting whether Joe Biden acted appropriately toward her.
Both candidates were strong and confident on stage last night.
Remember that poised and impressive governor we saw on the stage at the Republican convention? The one who told jokes about hockey moms being as tough as pitbulls?
I missed her over the past few weeks. We didn't work this hard for equality for so many years to have a woman vice presidential candidate be treated differently or more gently because she is a woman.
For the last few days there was entirely too much talk about how to treat Palin during the debate. If Biden came on strong, he might be sexist. If he was too soft, patronizing. iReport.com: Who do you think came out on top?
Well, that predebate analysis quickly became moot. She threw some punches. He didn't punch back at all, but not because she seemed too soft. He didn't punch back because her punches didn't score any points, so why bother?
Gov. Palin is a tough, aggressive politician who showed the country last night that she was not going to hereafter be defined as the weak and vulnerable person we saw in interview clips all week. She wanted the discussion on her terms and the analysis to be about the McCain-Palin ticket.
Joe Biden is free to criticize Gov. Palin just like any other opponent. And pundits from now on are free again to simply give our views with worrying about her fragility.
So here goes. Palin's answers in this debate vacillated between disappointing and incoherent. On the most pressing issue facing Americans this week - the economy - she had surprisingly little to offer. She repeated the McCain tax cut plan and health care plan.
But since their tax cuts mostly go to the wealthy...
Editor's Note: Rosen is political director HuffingtonPost.com, which describes itself as an Internet newspaper focused on politics from a liberal point of view, and a Democratic advisor.
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