Obama Picks Say-It-Ain't-So Joe

Sen. Barack Obama responded to charges of inexperience by choosing a 35-year Capitol Hill veteran, Joe Biden, as his running mate last week. Sen. Biden brings considerable experience from Washington, including time on the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. He and Obama's fellow Illinoisian, Richard Lugar, tried to stop President Bush from going to war with Iraq, and he and Council on Foreign Relations brainiac Leslie Gelb devised an alternative exit strategy for Iraq in the wake of the study group report. On paper, there is a lot to like about this man. However...
The guy is disturbingly prone to speaking on impulse, and some of those comments are downright inane. He told an Indian-American activist that there were so many Indian-Americans in Delaware that an Indian accent would be a requirement for a counterman at a 7-11. Last year, his presidential campaign imploded after he condescended to Obama during an interview. In his latest quip, he joked that it was a problem that his wife has a Ph.D.
Unlike many of us, Biden has endured tragedy -- the loss of his first wife and infant daughter in an automobile accident. He also faces the tension of being a parent of a soldier: his son Beau will serve a tour of duty in Iraq. I respect these hardships that Biden has and will continue to experience. Yet that respect does not translate into endorsing this choice of Obama's for a man who has served three-plus decades in public affairs and has not learned to speak diplomatically.