After months of speculating, waiting and politicking, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has finally selected his running mate. Now that Sen. Joe Biden has completed the Democratic presidential ticket, the question is rapidly turning toward the Delaware senator's ability to serve Obama on the ticket. Without a doubt, Biden was the most complimentary choice Obama could have made given his available options.
Critics deploy two main arguments against choosing the Scranton, Pa., native, none of which hold up upon careful examination. The most common argument against Biden is his tendency to be gaffe-prone. From referring to Obama as the "first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" to describing how he would shove rosary beads down the throats of Republicans who criticize him, Biden is certainly known as a blunder machine.
However, his ability to talk straight and relate to middle-class voters easily overcomes any verbiage issues he may encounter. All vice presidential candidates are gaffe-prone because they often assume the mantle of attack dog. There is no one better than Biden to fill this role. He demonstrated his sometimes vicious tendencies during the Democratic debates, noting that the only three things former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani mentions in a sentence are "a noun, a verb, and 9/11." Biden has transformed his childhood speech impediment into a gift for giving a solid, meat-and-potatoes blue collar speech.
The second criticism leveled against Biden is that he can't deliver a significant number of electoral votes to Obama. While Delaware only holds three electoral votes and is already solidly democratic, this hasn't stalled past presidential tickets. The truth is that the ability of vice presidents to deliver extra electoral votes has been vastly overstated for decades. The last time a vice president delivered a state to a presidential nominee was 1960 when Lyndon B. Johnson added Texas to President Kennedy's 337 electoral vote victory.
Rather than hindering Obama's booming bandwagon, Biden brings much to the ticket. He brings experience where it is direly needed: He is the former chair of the Senate's most powerful committee, the Judiciary Committee. He also serves as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will help to fill the holes in Obama's thin foreign policy portfolio. Biden's recent journey to Tbilisi, Georgia, came at the request of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. It was Biden, not McCain, whose presence was requested in the face of Russian aggression.
A cursory glance at the other options for vice president leaves much to be desired. Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh's bland centrist credentials would have done little for Obama. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is not terribly popular and, like Obama, his youth would lead to questions of inexperience. And Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas has less name recognition than the Florida State University football team.
The only thing that remains to be seen is whether McCain can choose a running mate as ideal as his opponent's. If McCain fails to deliver a solid vice president to complete the republican ticket, then Biden may provide the push Obama needs to jump back up in the polls and pull away for good.
Kyle Robisch is a second-year political-science and economics student.
