VP Picks

I'm intrigued by the Conventional Wisdom view of Senator Joe Biden. It is interesting on a few levels, most notably the incestuousness of Washington DC culture.

1) Senator Biden is appreciated by the Washington media a few steps ahead of his skills. These people have been out to lunch with him a hundred times, on a few junkets, &c. The DC media have a personal relationship with him, as he has been there as long as most of the reporters who cover him. I've no doubt he is a genial and intelligent luncheon guest, but the reporters "misoverestimate" him based on this.

2) FOXNews frequently can be counted in "alternate media" with blogs and talk radio because they do not feature the default, leftward slant of MSM. Yet, the view of Biden shows them to be in the MSM camp. Even the conservatives on FOX suggest that Governor Palin will be hard pressed to keep up with the skilled Senator.

3) I suggest that people who don't see him at Sally Quinn's cocktail parties view him as a comical figure. His presidential runs have been quixotic at best; I'm guessing Rep Dennis Kucinich has scored more delegates. If he is such a fierce debater, why did he have little success in the primaries?

4) Governor Palin gets the opposite. An unnamed insider is said to have been dismayed that "she's never been on Meet the Press."

This year, with Hope and Change in the air, I'm not sure that Governor Palin's story will not be more compelling. And I suggest that she might wipe the floor with the loquacious deliberator in the VP debates.

In the same vein, don't miss Bill McGurn's takedown of the "lunch bucket," "scrappy kid from Scranton" meme:

It's true that when members of Congress release their assets and incomes, Mr. Biden famously ranks near the bottom of the pile. But let's remember that we're talking about a pretty privileged pile. Only in a place as removed from reality as the Beltway could a man who has spent more than three decades in the United States Senate be hailed as a working-class stiff.

According to his most recent disclosure forms, Mr. Biden's income includes his Senate salary of $165,200 and a teaching stipend of $20,500 from Widener University. On top of this, he received $112,500 as the second half of a book advance. Even allowing for generous deductions, Mr. Biden's income comfortably locates him in the top 5% of American taxpayers.

The Senate disclosure forms do not require Mr. Biden to report his primary residence (or his federal pension). So I asked Jim Bowers -- an old college roommate of mine who also lives in Delaware, who also went to the same high school, and who is also running for election. "Not many lunch buckets up Joe's way," says Mr. Bowers, a Republican seeking a seat in Delaware's House of Representatives. "You have to remember that the senator lives in an area known as 'chateau country.'"

DNC2008 Posted by jk at September 2, 2008 1:11 PM