Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth

Barack Obama made a terrible mistake. One mistake, anyway, that I most certainly did not see as a mistake some weeks back. Is there a mistake that can be made by simply not putting the last nail in the coffin?

What am I talking about?

Joe Biden. Wonderful man, lovely smile, great family and strong history of service. He's a politicians' politician, in the classical sense of the word. Duty is probably written across the doormats in his office and at home.

But which world do we live in? Is this a place where sanity is the victor at days end? Does intelligence still sound smart? Where does eloquence fit into bite-sizedness?

If you have not heard, Joe Biden has been making some rather foolish comments lately. And please, let me be clear about my meaning when I say 'foolish.' In an Idiocracy such as ours, what Joe Biden is saying can be considered foolish.

Why should a VP be afraid to get up on stage and suggest that another person, a woman, would have made a better choice? He was addressing, of course, the Palin-effect and its impact on the electorate.

Gov. Palin-- even by the low-low standards of Karl Rove-- is grossly under(un)qualified and is, in fact, a base mockery of political decency that aims to capitalize on the shallow legacy of George W. Bush. Palin herself represents a continued backsliding of American legitimacy compounded atop W. Yet she has succeeded in electrifying the racist, evangelist, anti-choice, God first crowd who helped W. to bag two terms in office.

And what about Joe Biden's comments about the first six-months of Obama's presidency? Strange, maybe, but it really just seems honest. Listen to his entire argument-- it makes sense. Look at the current resistance to Barack Obama's bid. It is certain that Republican insiders and right-wing hawks will attempt to sever his hold over the hearts of Americans. Trent Lott couldn't dream up such attacks as are sure to come against Barack Obama, Commander In Chief.

Joe Biden may be a mistake, and why is that? It seems this is primarily because Sarah Palin has pumped warm blood back into the faltering corpse that is the McCain for President campaign. It seems that as a secondary reason, Hillary Clinton may have been able to gather more votes for Obama than Joe Biden.

The only problem with any of these reasons is that they don't make any sense to me. I doubt they make sense to very many people.

I think Joe Biden was engaging in an exercise when he said Hillary might've been a better choice. Like playing 'What if...' I think he was being serious when he said Barack may have to face something severe immediately. He said that it may not seem obvious at first that Obama's making the right choice. He ended by saying that Obama is ready to see any challenge through with clarity and purpose.

Joe Biden is only a mistake if people don't respect someone who can be sharp and honest at the same time. Joe Biden is not a liability-- Sarah Palin is the liability. Joe gets honest and Americans approve. Sarah Palin gets honest and it raises questions or otherwise makes people feel sad. Joe is a Dem and it's obvious he's a patriot-- that plays well in Virginia. Palin is a Republican and it's obvious that she's got some serious ethical and experience challenges-- that doesn't really play well anywhere.