Obama Balances Ticket with Occasionally Racist Old White Guy

Following conventional political wisdom, Barack Obama has selected his demographic opposite -- the occasionally racist old white guy, Joseph Biden -- as his presidential running mate. Choice quotes from the senior U.S. senator from Delaware:

"[Obama is] the first mainstream African American [candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” (cnn.com)

"You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.” (youtube.com)

So take that, Republicans!! Not only is Obama not a Reverend Wright groupie, he's even chosen an out-of-touch honkey as his running mate!!

I'm half-kidding about all of this, of course, and in any case Biden's comments are not going to be harmful because ignorance doesn't fit with the Republicans' attack narrative of Obama (also, these comments all seem to be of the foot-in-mouth variety, not intentionally malignant). What does concern me is that Biden has also made damaging comments regarding Obama's lack of experience -- and that certainly does fit the narrative. Yeah, you want to choose a guy whose strengths are Obama's weaknesses, and yeah, Biden's an old guy with lots of experience... but he's also an old guy with lots of experience who has said things like this:

"It's a well-intentioned notion [Obama] has, but it's a very naive way of thinking how you're going to conduct foreign policy."

"Having talking points on foreign policy doesn't get you there."

"I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

(all from usatoday.com)

The whole point of choosing a counter-balance VP is to, you know, counter-balance your weaknesses -- not highlight them. It seems as though the only thing the vetting committee looked at was how much experience Biden had, rather than looking at how Biden will reflect on Obama's experience.

Every VP contender has his weaknesses, sure, but the Dems should have chosen a guy whose weaknesses are completely off-base with what the Republicans are slinging at Obama. If you've got a candidate whose weakness is inexperience, choose a running mate whose problem is that he cheated on his wife or is boring or something; don't choose the guy who has to explain why he called the candidate "naive" and in need of "on-the-job training."