If Biden's the veep, does the Biden-Gelb plan come back?

Mon, 08/18/2008 - 9:17pm
VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images

The political blogosphere roared back to life Monday after a week of relative quiet, with some rampant speculation about whether Barack Obama plans to pick Joe Biden, the Delaware senator, as his running mate.

Adding fuel to the fire, Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times report this evening that Obama has "all but settled on" his veep choice, and that it's most likely either Biden, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, or Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

Biden, who traveled to Georgia this weekend at the behest of President Mikheil Saakashvili, would be seen by many as a solid choice for Obama on foreign policy. He hasn't hesitated to launch sharp attacks on John McCain, and he has a record of making prescient comments about Pakistan, among other issues.

Still, I wonder what people will say about Biden's ideas about Iraq, and what kind of influence they would have on Obama's position. The Biden-Gelb plan, described here by George Packer, took a lot of heat from respected Iraq experts such as Joost Hilterman of the International Crisis Group and was widely panned by Iraqis. It was rejected by the Iraq Study Group and the Bush administration as unworkable. Has Biden talked about it lately? Given how much the surge exceeded everyone's expectations, I doubt it. But I'm curious to know what the senator thinks about it these days.

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Foot + Mouth

Biden is a sound choice for foreign policy, because, at the very least, he is willing to consider ideas and to entertain controversial proposals. Hover, as a politician, he has only been able to stay a senator in Delaware (where I'm from) for so long because we know he does a good job. If he weren't the incumbent, he very well might be unelectable. He has a bad habit of saying things that could get him thrown out of a competitive race. For example, that comment about Indian accents in Dunkin Donuts and how "clean and articulate" Barack is. He just talks way too much for his - and most people's - own good. He'll have to work on that.

Biden: foot in mouth

Biden is a very sharp fellow. My father-in-law met him several times, being a Delawarian. Even being a Republican, my father-in-law had nothing but good things to say about Biden.

But in public (or on TV), he really does have "foot in mouth disease". Biden answers a question competently and with command of a subject... and then keeps yapping, often undermining his initial answer.

Jeff @ Armchair FP