Hasslington V.P. Endorsement: Senator Obama Should Select Senator Biden To Be His Running Mate; Also, Have A Happy (Belated) Birthday, U.S.A.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, U.S.A.

First of all, I'd like to wish my home country, the United States of America--which turned 232 years old yesterday, July 4--a very happy birthday. Mrs. Hasslington and I celebrated the day by lounging on the shores of historic White Bear Lake (written about by, amongst many others, Mark Twain), which is located several miles northeast of Saint Paul, Minnesota. She snapped a few pictures of her first ever Independence Day fireworks display (which took place over the lake), which was odd as it is representative of the U.S. getting pummeled by her country's military forces, but that was quite some time ago, so.... Prior to that, we embodied the July 4th stereotype of "Americans Gorging" by eating way too much grilled food (salmon this year, not steak or chicken). Well, okay, I ate too much food; she did not. (I suppose I could claim that I was using the "royal we" just there, though that would be an admittedly weak excuse for having been overzealously inclusive....)

REGARDING SENATOR OBAMA'S RUNNING MATE CHOICES: I'M SIDIN' WITH BIDEN

I maintain that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson would make a wonderful Secretary of State, should Senator Obama be elected president. (His resume' has Secretary of State written all over it.) I endorse him for that position. I also maintain that U.S. Senator Joe Biden (of Delaware) would be a tremendously strong running mate, so much so that I endorse him for the position. I've written about his (and other people's) qualifications for the job several times in the past few months, so I'll keep my re-hashing of those qualifications to a minimum here. (Yeah, right....)

Let it suffice to say that Senator Biden is a foreign policy expert (he has been a long-standing member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he presently chairs) who understands the complexities involved in international relations; Senator Obama is understandably weak on foreign relations experience (though his international world view, partly due to his background, is strong--he understands the role the U.S. must play in a rapidly changing world very well indeed), so selecting Biden would help him insofar as that's concerned. Senator Biden is also superb in debate scenarios--he's a happy attack dog who manages to use "big words" on a frequent basis, while simultaneously appealing to blue collar voters with his tenacity and consistency at the podium. Mixed with some truly amusing "quips," he's a master of debate craft whose only stumbling point is that his conviction can slide into a sort of ueber-intensity that resembles anger from time to time (it's not anger, but it can be confused with it at times).

Senator Biden has oodles of Washington experience, which could be leveraged to allow Senator Obama to carry on with his personal "outsider" message (it's the ultimate "balanced" ticket, in that sense). He is in his mid-sixties (which offsets Senator Obama's relative youth); he's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (which would help in arguing against the sort of legal shenanigans perpetuated by the Bush Administration); he's Catholic (Senator Obama lost the Catholic primary vote rather heavily to Senator Clinton in several key "swing states," so Senator Biden could help win a certain percentage of them over to an Obama-led ticket); he is one of the main authors of the "Violence Against Women Act" (which stiffened penalties against individuals who commit violent crimes against women--that might help win back some of Senator Clinton's more fervent supporters); and, simply put, he looks the part of a "Founding Father" (his face seems as though it should be on a dollar bill). He also understands how presidents become successful and maintain success (he's served in the national legislature during the tenures of seven presidents), and he therefore knows what to do in order to avoid being unsuccessful, so he could guide a potential President Obama through some of the minutae of the job, handling some of it on his own so that a President Obama could focus on the "big picture" issues.

It's said that Senator Biden's mouth has a tendency to go on and on...and on some more. That's sometimes true, but if he can be a bit on the "windbag" side of things from time to time, it's nonetheless the case that the things he carries on talking about--Bush Administration failures, both at home and abroad; a more proper use of our soft and hard power insofar as foreign policy leverage is concerned; balancing out the various sources of energy we use so that the U.S. can wiggle out of the grip of foreign oil conglomerates; how to "right" the economic ship through the combination of a more balanced foreign policy and more sustainable overall domestic policy--are by-and-large the types of things that most concern Americans right now.

Joe Biden could very easily transition from Vice President to President if something tragic were to occur, which is important given the fact that the first consideration for anyone picking a running mate ought to be whether that person can almost seamlessly transition to the top slot if need be. At the risk of this defense of Senator Biden sounding like a testimonial to him, I assert that he is whip-smart, experienced at the national and international levels, compelling to various types of voters, and prepared for the role of either Vice President or President "from day one," as the saying goes.

There are a lot of potentially strong running mates for Senator Obama, but Senator Joe Biden is the strongest of the bunch. Later this summer, Senator Obama ought to select him for the role. That would make for a very strong, very balanced ticket indeed.