What Biden does for Obama

Barack Obama has just passed one of the most crucial tests for a presidential candidate, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. Anyone who hopes to occupy the White House needs to choose a running mate who would be able to “serve as president at a moment’s notice.” Obama’s selection of six-term Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware gives him an “impressive partner and president-in-waiting.”

Biden was hardly a “bold or inspiring” choice, said The Denver Post in an editorial. Obama’s campaign is supposed to be about change, but Biden is nothing if not a “Washington insider.” Hillary Clinton or Bill Richardson would have been bolder options and, unlike Biden, they could have given his sputtering campaign a jolt.

Obama clearly hoped that Biden, a foreign policy expert, would bring gravitas to his campaign, said The Washington Times in an editorial. But having such a “seasoned politician” by his side only calls attention to Obama’s “insecurity about his own credentials”—when Biden was himself a presidential hopeful, he wondered aloud about whether Obama was ready to lead.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

There’s certainly no way anyone can complain about the foreign-policy chops of the Democratic ticket now, said Mark Penn, who was chief adviser to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, in The New York Times’ Campaign Stops blog. With Biden serving as a “high-level partner,” Obama has gone a long way toward overcoming “all questions about the readiness of his administration so that the voters can believe in the change he will bring.”