DENVER - In selecting Sen. Joseph Biden as his running mate, Barack Obama
gains some needed foreign policy expertise, but loses some credibility. If
Washington is as bad as these two say it is, was Biden a contributor or an
enabler during his six Senate terms? If 36 years in the Senate doesn't make
you an "insider" and part of the problem, what does?
Presidential candidates love to run against Washington and pretend they are
outsiders, even when they have been insiders. The same applies to John
McCain, who has been an insider for 26 years, 24 of them in the Senate. But
while McCain has been critical of some Bush administration policies -
notably the initial way the Iraq War was fought with too few troops - Biden
has a litany of criticism of Obama, which the McCain campaign will use to
undermine whatever enhancements Biden brings to the Democratic ticket.
Last August on "The Diane Rehm Show," Biden said, "If the Democrats think
we're going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person
being able to table unimpeachable credentials on national security and
foreign policy, I think we're making a tragic mistake." If Democrats buy the
line that Biden's foreign policy credentials as chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee make up for Obama's foreign policy deficiencies (Obama
has said his opposition to the Iraq War "came from a set of experiences that
come from a life of living overseas, having family overseas, being able to
see the world through the eyes of people outside our borders"), aren't they
making the Republicans' case for putting Dick Cheney on the GOP ticket in
2000?
While 180-degree turns are common in politics, Biden has a record of
substantive criticism of Obama and of support for the Iraq War that will be
difficult to explain, even in our cynical age. Presuming that Biden once
held these views out of strong conviction, how does he now reverse himself
without being charged with a willingness to say and do anything in order to
win?
On "Meet the Press" last September, Biden attacked Obama for his vote
against funding American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq: "If you tell me
I've got to take away this protection for these kids in order to win the
election, some things aren't worth it." This sounds similar to McCain's
charge that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win an election.