McCain's crew is already dumping their canned Biden stories on the news an hour after I got my text message. I know people are annoyed about the text message thing. I'm not. Barack said he'd come to us before the news media, and he did. Did the media stalk the candidates until they got their story? Yeah, they did. They had to, and they were forced to break their biggest story in the middle of the night (EST.) There's a lesson there for them, and a lot to thing about. And come on, it was fun watching them whirl around and get crazy because it was out of their control for a bit, admit it.
While admiring the brilliance of the Obama people-powered campaign I had to take a moment in this sleepless evening to recognize another brilliant moment that happened in the past week.
Here is what Obama said about his criteria for selecting a Vice President this week (emphasis mine):
Let me tell you first what I won't do. I won't hand over my energy policy to my vice president, without knowing necessarily what he's doing. I wont have my vice president engineering my foreign policy for me. The buck will stop with me, because I will be the president. My vice president, also by the way my vice president also will be a member of the executive branch, he won't be one of these 4th branches of government where he thinks he's above the law. But here's what I do want from my vice president, I want somebody who has integrity, who's in politics for the right reasons, I want somebody who is independent. Somebody who is able to say to me, 'you know what, Mr. President, I think you're wrong on this and here's why' and will give me (applause) who will help me think through major issues and consult with me, would be a key advisor. I want somebody who is capable of being president and who I would trust to be president. That's the first criteria for vice president. And the final thing is I want a [vice] president who shares with me a passion to make the lives of the American people better than they are right now. I want someone who is not in it just because they want to have their name up in lights or end up being president. I want somebody who is mad right now, that people are losing their jobs. And is mad right now that people have seen their incomes decline, and want to rebuild the middle class in this country. That's the kind of person that I want; somebody who in their gut knows where they came from and believes that we have to grow this country from the bottom up.
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/...
Note that Barack specifically said he wanted someone unafraid to disagree with him that he could consult with and "think" with. He wants someone to debate ideas with, you know, like people who make important decisions normally do. We can easily use this opportunity to remind America of the stupidity of the Bush white house. We can contrast our candidate, who is unafraid of debating to clarify his decisions, with the inbred ideas that came from Dubya's reign because no one would tell the emperor he was wrong while Cheney was wearing his clothes.
So when you read the tripe the McCain camp pumps out in the next week, like this:
"There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama's lack of experience than Joe Biden," said McCain spokesman Ben Porritt. "Biden has denounced Barack Obama's poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing -- that Barack Obama is not ready to be President."
http://online.wsj.com/...
...remember that Obama has already said he would choose someone who would disagree with him. Everyday, Obama's politics impress me a bit more. Especially when I conclude time and again that he's basing them on gasp the truth about what he thinks!
And if you're worrying about the conflicts in the platform, and the times Biden has been dead-wrong, well, take comfort in Obama's pre-response as well. Especially the part where he said "The buck will stop with me, because I will be the President."
What a Presidency we are going to have.
Update My husband just woke up and reminded me that Lincoln, one of Obama's favorite presidents, also purposefully filled his cabinet with people he disagreed with in order to come up with measured policy, some of whom were his rivals. http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/...
Time to make history.