There is something extremely incongruous about waiting for a text message that Joe Biden is the Agent of Change’s vice presidential pick. There could be no more fitting gesture to expose that the Obama campaign is built on an increasingly shaky premise.

Put simply: what happened to the themes of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign? A “no” vote on the Iraq war was the telltale sign of superior national security judgment. Experience doesn’t matter. A long senate career is useless in preparing one for leadership. All these are now officially inapplicable? Or is there some bizarre methodology by which one would reconcile these messages (and the candidacy of Obama) with the selection of Joe Biden? You got me.

Biden was spectacularly wrong about the surge. Is misjudgment on Iraq the overriding message of the ticket? Obama’s selection has in essence made hash of the rationale for Obama’s campaign.  The One may be trying to rescue his credibility as a potential commander-in-chief, but that is a long shot: there is only one President at a time. (It is ironic that the Democrats who mocked George W. Bush for allegedly subcontracting out national security to Dick Cheney should now attempt the very same thing.)

In going this route Obama has sacrificed the chance to create excitement, to heal the breach with Hillary Clinton’s supporters, and to increase his chances in any key swing state. To throw away all that, the need must have been very great indeed. The problem of his own national security credentials is now apparently so severe that he had no other choice than to step all over his New Politician-Agent of Change-Judgement Trumps Experience themes.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.