Biden’s dad was a car salesman in his youth, so I guess the family lived paycheck to paycheck. Okay, fine, the roots are working class…but the rest of the tree is as privileged as it gets.

A couple of them - Kaine, Sebelius - have no track record of success, allowing the inexperience meme to resonate even more.

One - Bayh - enrages the netroots, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, and Obama doesn’t want that.

Hillary would have been idiocy for a million reasons, and would have brought headaches galore for the entire time the partnership lasted.

As for Biden’s negatives, the negatives Biden has matter a lot less when paired up with Obama. Are people really going to not vote for Obama because Biden made a couple of racially insensitive remarks? Don’t think so. If he were heading the ticket, that would matter, or if he were running with almost anyone else, but Obama gives him cover.

As for the wealth of stupid comments and skeletons, yeah, but the question is how much people are really going to care.

And then there are the positives. He’s from Scranton, which is going to help with Pennsylvania - maybe put it out of reach if it helps Obama get a solid turnout from working class north eastern Pennsylvania. He’s got a son going to Iraq in October, which is going to matter to some people. More importantly, he seems normal, regular, solid, and Obama badly needs a dose of that right now.

Given the structural constraints, it will require a stroke of genius for McCain to emerge from the VP pick as well off.

None of which means we shouldn’t have some fun with Biden, or that we shouldn’t take every opportunity to try to pigeonhole him before the Democrats get their own chance. McCain was very, very smart to have ads ready to go even before the formal announcement. It just means that we would have had even more fun with some of the other picks.

Biden’s baggage is irrelevant: he is more boring than McCain, so the focus will remain on the Second Coming and the Ataxalypse of Fairness!

Biden:

• Has been a vocal critic of Obama. Remember the “Presidency is not a place for on-the-job training” comment?

• Is hardly likely to excite the younger crowd. The guy is 65 years old, for cryin’ out loud!

• Is not a logical messenger of Obama’s “HopeChange” message. He’s been in the Senate, literally, since John McCain was a guest at the Hanoi Hilton.

• Has so many skeletons one closet can’t hold them all, including the plagiarism charge.

Makes me wonder if the GOP has someone in Obama’s campaign, whispering ideas in Senator I AM’s ear.

He’s a regular guy, or at least comes off that way, which is something the Obama campaign needs. He’s been around Washington forever, and even if he puts foot in mouth with regularity, he’s not on anyone’s list of idiot Senators. He wants it, badly, and will probably be a team player. If Obama gets elected, he can be the bridge to the hill Obama will need to not be another Jimmy Carter. Most importantly of all, his pick is not going to anger and send home any important block of Democratic voters.

All along, though, I’ve thought McCain had the tougher task in picking a VP than Obama had. Obama just had to avoid a Thomas Eagleto pick. McCain has to pick someone that all three legs of the Republican coalition will support. That’s not going to be easy.

Thank you very much for so perfectly and succinctly articulating what has been eating me for months.

Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Joe Biden is a joke and a terrible candidate, and that aspect is what got me laughing over Obama’s choosing him. But I agree with you, I don’t think Biden has the underlying resentment toward our supposedly sick American culture that eats at so many liberals. And whatever low blows he threw at Bork and Thomas, there was some minimal level of respect for democratic principles that he wouldn’t cross in his pursuit of their defeat. Whatever resentments (well justified) that people with long memories still have about those nominations, I’d ask wasn’t it still far fairer than what his successor as Judiciary chairman has done? Biden at least gave them a vote.

It’s unfortunate that we can’t take that level of Americanism for granted among our opposing party’s candidates, as we rip into them for lesser failings in the hardball of electoral politics. But sadly, the Democratic party has sunk to the state where Biden is exceptional in that respect.

That said, Biden is still a joke as a prospective VP, the proverbial heartbeat from the Presidency (though nowhere near the joke of Obama as President), and will make a pitiful candidate. I look forward to Romney slicing him to bits in the VP debate.