Lots of good reaction to the Biden pick from our diaries.
Hope Reborn rounds up all the positive reaction to the pick, and there's plenty of it.
dcprof makes some excellent points about how Biden crimps McCain's VP options.
Romney was already problematic because of house?-gate. Choosing Biden, from working class roots and at the bottom of senatorial wealth, emphasizes that. If Romney's the pick, it's all the easier to do the "out of touch" line with the Republicans with Biden in place.
I've been concerned about McCain picking Pawlenty, putting Minnesota in play and speaking to low-income voters. But....imagine Biden vs. Pawlenty on foreign policy in the debates. Or imagine how the choices are perceived. McCain has said that the key is that these are dangerous times. So he picks a mid-sized state's governor whose foreign policy credentials seem to be visiting Minnesota troops abroad and doing trade delegations? Maybe that would have worked if Obama picked Kaine or Sebelius, whose credentials on foreign policy would have only been only comparable to Pawlenty. But how on earth can you claim that foreign policy is the most central issue and then choose a clearly inferior person (on that dimension) to be one heartbeat away?
I don't know who McCain can pick who has the foreign policy chops to go up against Biden who is not either massively wealthy or someone who would undermine one of McCain's other themes. (Note, for instance, what would happen to the pro-life support for him if he picked Ridge.)
And I love Karma for All's diary, pointing out that Obama ... here, I'll quote:
Here is what Obama said about his criteria for selecting a Vice President this week (emphasis mine): [...]
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.
[...] 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."
...remember that Obama has already said he would choose someone who would disagree with him.