Joe Biden Is in This for the Long Haul.

[babylonsister]

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=10&year=2010&base_name=joe_biden_is_in_this_for_the_l

Joe Biden Is in This for the Long Haul.

Bob Woodward looks at the 2012 presidential election, and sees Barack Obama running with his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton:

snip//

You don’t actually need to know politics to know that this is nonsense; only one president in a hundred years has run for re-election without their current vice president, and those were very special circumstances. In 1940, after fighting off a primary challenge from his then-Vice President, John Nance Garner, Franklin Roosevelt won the Democratic nomination and chose Henry Wallace as his running mate. Four years later, to placate party leaders who saw Wallace as a little too left-wing for a three-time incumbent running for re-election, Roosevelt chose Harry S. Truman as his replacement.

If political weakness were all it took for incumbents to change running mates, then Jimmy Carter -- one of the weakest presidents in recent memory -- would have jumped for the opportunity. But as we see with Roosevelt, it takes far more than simple political weakness to make that choice. To change running mates is to announce that you don’t have much confidence in your government, and unless you’re supremely confident that the public will vindicate you, it’s a stupid decision to make. I’m sure it’s fun for Woodward to play “what if,” but barring something huge -- like a primary challenge -- I’m 99.9 percent certain that Joe Biden will stay on as Obama’s running mate in 2012.

-- Jamelle Bouie

[rurallib]

1. I agree that Biden is most likely

But he is too old if Obama wanted to 'groom' a successor.
That seldom works anyway.

[karynnj]

7. If you want to use that as a reason - then the replacement would likely be younger than Clinton

She is 5 years younger than Biden. Both seem in good health - and may it stay that way. At their ages, individual differences can easily account for how is more fit, healthier and looks younger.

[gateley]

2. I'd have to agree -- despite the pros and cons of such a switch, and regardless of

what stellar reasons an administration may proffer, the general message would be a loud and clear statement of insecurity.

[northoftheborder]

3. I'm so sick of the media grabbing a rumor and running with it....

......repeating ad nauseum, just because they want a new story.

[jaxx]

5. That makes two of us.

Let someone throw out a rumor and they are suddenly the know-it-all of the country. The story is then spun left and right, truth be damned, and the person they're talking about it always wrong on all counts.

The media is the whore giving it away free....and it used to be a noble profession.

[karynnj]

8. or in this case the media (Woodward) making up the rumor

[AtomicKitten]

4. Obama-Biden 2012.

[nyc 4 Biden]

6. +1

[jillan]

9. They are such a good team, they compliment each other really well - and

I think they get along really, really well.

[robertpaulsen]

10. "to placate party leaders who saw Wallace as a little too left-wing..."

Hmmm...so we had Corporatist ConservaDems way back in 1940?

Wonder why they thought Wallace was too left-wing?

Maybe it was something he said?



"The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way."

"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism."

"It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups."

"If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States."

"Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise."

"In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself."



There's more where that came from -
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/henry_a_wallace.html

[Skidmore]

11. Woodward outlived his usefulness many moons ago.

He hasn't done a real service for this nation since Watergate. Too much in the pocket of the CIA and defense industry.

[Imagevision]

12. Actually I think Obama/Hillary make a better ticket...

[angee_is_mad]

13. Giv'em Hell Joe!

and tell all the haters to go fuck themselves!