After weeks in which the media did its best to create anticipation and suspense over Barack Obama's selection for the most insignificant job in his administration, the Democratic Party has its nominee for the Office of Vice President. And it is typical of the Obama campaign since he clenched the nomination of the Party for President.
The Vice Presidency has always been a problem for the President, and the Vice President has always been regarded by the media and the people as either a nonentity or an embarassment. George Gershwin, in his musical comedy "Of Thee I Sing"([link edited for length], created Alexander P. Throttlebottom, a Vice President who was allowed into the White House only on the formal tours, to represent the American attitude toward the position. And it was an accurate portrayal of one phase of the job.
The first Vice President, John Adams, was an open advocate of aristocratic government (which he characterised as government by the good and the wise) who proposed that the President should be referred to as "His Republican Highness". The second Vice President, Thomas Jefferson, fought against the President's policies for four years and then displaced him. The third vice president, Aaron Burr, was indicted for murder during his term and for treason after he left office.(N.B. He was never tried on the first charge and was acquitted of the second). The fourth Vice President, George Clinton, was an aging hero of the Revolution who was widely regarded as senile during his term.
And the vice presidents of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have fared no better in contemporary opinion. Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle, and Dick Cheney, for very different reasons, have all reinforced the disdain with which the office is viewed.
Barack Obama, with the help of the media, was able to get some benefit to his campaign . He delayed the announcement of his choice for Vice President so that the question featured prominently in the media during the down time before the convention. By promising to make the first announcement to his supporters and their friends if they supplied addresses and cell phone numbers for funds solicitation, he undeoubtedly gained an expanded e-mail and telephone list. But he then posted his choice on his website before the e-mails were sent. Just another promise broken.([link edited for length])
And the selection of Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running marks a final step in Obama's move from a campaign of peace, change and hope to a campaign for war, imperialism and descent into totalitarianism. It confirms the evidence of the past two months that, having secured the delegates necessary for nomination by preaching change and hope for the future, Obama is campaigning for continuation of failed policies and despair for the future.
It is difficult to see what other message Obama is trying to send with the selection of Senator Biden as his running mate. A run of the mill Democratic Senator from Delaware is not going to secure votes for the ticket on a regional basis. Since Biden has been offering himself as a candidate for President or Vice President for twenty years, he is not reinforcing the idea of change, and since he was never a serious contender for either job before, he does not have a large fan base to bring to the campaign. As a campaigner, he is known as a tireless and tiresome orator whose speeches sparkle with neither new ideas nor stirring rhetoric. What he says draws attention only when he steals a speech from someone else([link edited for length]).
The Congressmen and voters who support the imperialist and anti-liberty policies of the Bush administration might be encouraged by the belief that Obama will follow the example of President Bush and turn foreign and military and "security" policy over to his vice president. His record in the Senate shows that Biden is willing to follow the belligerent, dictatorial and secretive Dick Cheney in everything except secrecy. He is certainly not the candidate not interested in personal publicity or self-aggrandizement that Obama said he was seeking.
This presidential election is still a critical one, but not because of the choice between O;Cain and McBama. It is the election when the only real choice is between supporting a third party and participating in the elimination of liberty in America.
©2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Saturday, August 23, 2008
Last modified: Friday, October 10, 2008
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: David S
Date: 2008-08-23 11:33:24
That's double trouble for gun owners. Maybe I should say triple trouble as McCain isn't very pro-gun either. All three were rated F by GOA. http://www.gunowners.org/110srat.htm Some choice! :-(
Posted By: Revolutionweary
Date: 2008-08-25 03:08:51
Check out Barr's record (looks like 4 down and more to go...):
(I) As a freshman Congressman in 1996, Barr voted for the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997, "an appropriations bill which contained two pieces of pernicious gun control: The Lautenberg gun ban which disarms gun owners for small (misdemeanor) offenses in the home ... and The Kohl gun ban which creates a virtual one-half mile wide "gun free" circle around every American school."
(II) There is some evidence that Barr supported, and even partly wrote, the Lautenberg ban. In a Sept. 1996 letter, Barr stated that "The Lautenberg amendment with the Barr language is strong protection for women and children." In an October letter to the editor, he claimed that "My language" saved the ban from being ruled unconstitutional. In a March, 1997, USA Today piece, "Don't Wink at Violence," he praised it as "worthwhile and important legislation," declaring "we cannot allow its effectiveness to be reduced."
(III) Despite explicitly disavowing some past views and votes since joining the Libertarians in 2006, Barr has never dealt with the Lautenberg ban.