Hoping It’s Biden -- David Brooks endorses Biden

[jefferson_dem]

DUPE. Original here -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6693855&mesg_id=6693855

August 22, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Hoping It’s Biden
By DAVID BROOKS

Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate. And while I don’t know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden.

Biden’s weaknesses are on the surface. He has said a number of idiotic things over the years and, in the days following his selection, those snippets would be aired again and again.

But that won’t hurt all that much because voters are smart enough to forgive the genuine flaws of genuine people. And over the long haul, Biden provides what Obama needs:

Working-Class Roots. Biden is a lunch-bucket Democrat. His father was rich when he was young — played polo, cavorted on yachts, drove luxury cars. But through a series of bad personal and business decisions, he was broke by the time Joe Jr. came along. They lived with their in-laws in Scranton, Pa., then moved to a dingy working-class area in Wilmington, Del. At one point, the elder Biden cleaned boilers during the week and sold pennants and knickknacks at a farmer’s market on the weekends.

His son was raised with a fierce working-class pride — no one is better than anyone else. Once, when Joe Sr. was working for a car dealership, the owner threw a Christmas party for the staff. Just as the dancing was to begin, the owner scattered silver dollars on the floor and watched from above as the mechanics and salesmen scrambled about for them. Joe Sr. quit that job on the spot.

Even today, after serving for decades in the world’s most pompous workplace, Senator Biden retains an ostentatiously unpretentious manner. He campaigns with an army of Bidens who seem to emerge by the dozens from the old neighborhood in Scranton. He has disdain for privilege and for limousine liberals — the mark of an honest, working-class Democrat.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

[SteppingRazor]

1. Good to know Biden has the space alien vote. n/t

[Kahuna]

5. Maybe so. Still, he makes "the" case for Biden very well. nt

[SteppingRazor]

6. Very true. Though I find his initial premise lame.

Obama should not need a working-class voice. The man grew up in a single-family home on food stamps. That said, I recognize that the GOP has been able to paint him as an elitist so far, and that's more the fault of the Obama campaign than anyone else.

[midnight]

2. Is David Brooks a honest, working -class Democrat?

[irish.lambchop]

3. Fair play to Mr. Brooks on this one! n/t

[AlinPA]

4. Very odd that the slime Brooks would write something like this.

[yellowwood]

7. Oh, oh. Not good

David Brooks is a neocon, likes the war, always has. If he likes Biden, then watch out.

[eshfemme]

8. Ugh, at this point, I want the pontificators of the MSM to just shut up and wait patiently

like the rest of us. It's certainly not helping their dignity and just enhances the image of the MSM as tabloid paparazzo now. I mean the MSM got scooped by the Enquirer and they're just STALKING the politicians now.

[Mass]

9. Until he does not. Brooks is an hypocrite. But I agree with his message of the day!