Posted by Rojas @ 3:49 pm on August 22nd 2008

InTrade says…

Biden’s VP stock has spiked dramatically over the last 24 hours; it’s trading at nearly 50.

Either somebody knows something or everybody thinks that somebody else does.

posted in: Main

15 Comments »

  1. If he chooses Biden, he better have a good supply of ball gags.

    Comment by James — 8/22/2008 @ 3:52 pm

  2. Whereas Clinton would necessitate gall bags.

    Comment by Rojas — 8/22/2008 @ 3:54 pm

  3. Haha.

    The danger of Biden shooting off his mouth is vastly overstated, I think. Most of his gaffes are not of the “wow, I can’t believe he actually believes that” but are of the “wow, I can’t believe he actually said that” variety. And frankly, he contrasts well enough with Obama that I think voters would “get” him in his attack dog role, and it’s a role Obama needs somebody (who is not Obama) to play. The media loves to get all namby-pamby about every misstatement and gaffe, but the truth is the ones that hurt tend to be ones that highlight an already-out-there theme (“voted for before against”, etc). Biden isn’t really known for those kinds. In fact, a lot of his supposed gaffes would probably help more than hurt, especially with Biden’s reputation for shooting off at the mouth. It’s stuff that sounds like a gaffe, but you’re still getting out there what you wanted to get out there (remember when Kerry “accidentally” forgot to take off his mic talking to some factory workers, and chastising the GOP for being a bunch of liars? Think that was indeed an accident? That’s Biden.) With Biden you also get a lot of experience, policy command, gravitas, working class ethic, etc, most of which you just won’t get from any other candidate.

    I am starting to think it’s gotta be Biden or Clinton, for the reasons I mentioned in the timing post. If not, Obama’s screwed the pooch on the timing.

    Comment by Brad — 8/22/2008 @ 4:22 pm

  4. You think everything is vastly overstated, Brad. Why I would submit that you vastly overstate how overstated you think things are. Biden is a loose cannon, but if Obama is into taking risks, then Biden is his man. At least he will have a VP who can match or exceed his own capacity for making the wrong predictions. Biden could be like an annode of wrong and allow Obama to gleam like the Hope Diamond reflecting the rising sun as it dangles from the neck of the glowing sprite of change.

    Comment by James — 8/22/2008 @ 4:35 pm

  5. I thought you liked Biden?

    Comment by Brad — 8/22/2008 @ 4:36 pm

  6. I do. I think he’s a great guy. I also think he is an overly verbose, self-absorbed, hyperbolic, condescending stuffed-shirt. You know, all the stuff I like about you.

    Comment by James — 8/22/2008 @ 4:42 pm

  7. The Art of the Possible gets it.

    But…

    …Biden is perhaps the only Democrat — indeed, perhaps the only elected official in America — who (a) knows a lot about foreign policy, (b) opposes Bush foreign policy not just because it has happened to work out poorly, but on basic conceptual grounds, and (c) is uniformly regarded (by people who do this sort of regarding professionally) as “strong on national security/defense/foreign policy,” that elusive quasi-mystical quality that has nothing whatsoever to do inherently with wisdom and knowledge regarding national security, defense, and foreign policy, but on the contrary is usually correlated with having abysmal views on those issues. That gives him, alone among any potential vice-presidential candidate, the leeway to attack McCain-Lieberman-Kagan-Commentard ideology with no punches pulled, and have his attacks scored by the media as “serious,” rather than the effluvium of Kucinichian pussydom. And better still, Biden is just better than anybody else on the national stage at attacking McCain-Lieberman-Kagan-Commentard ideology — far better than Barack Obama, to pick a random example. Remember (who could forget?) his pwnages of Ru9dy! Giul11ani (thanks, SL)? There’s more where that comes from. Unlike the other Democrats, including Sen. Obama, who appear determined to play right into the bitch-slap strategy yet again, Biden bitch-slaps back, and harder. And thanks to the MSM’s arcane attributions of “gravitas,” it works. And the territory Biden bitch-slaps back on is the very territory on which the warmongering right has done so much harm to the nation and the world these last eight years. Biden’s the only one with a real shot to upset the CW on national security and foreign policy, and to cow the warmongers into a long-overdue embarrassed silence in the process; and if he did do that, and nothing else, he’d do more good for his country and the globe than anybody on a national ticket in a long, long time.

    Comment by Brad — 8/22/2008 @ 4:48 pm

  8. Biden now trading at 80 at InTrade.

    We’re either looking at insider information or at the mother of all investor stampedes.

    Comment by Rojas — 8/22/2008 @ 10:49 pm

  9. CNN is reporting that Kaine, Bayh, and Clinton have all been eliminated.

    It’s down to either Biden, Sebelius, or a complete surprise.

    I have to say, if it’s Sebelius, I can’t even imagine the pressure that puts on her convention speech.

    Comment by Brad — 8/22/2008 @ 11:09 pm

  10. Man, it’s all Biden all the time at CNN.

    Sebelius only gets the fleetingist of mentions at all, usually relegated to the “also…” lists.

    Comment by Brad — 8/22/2008 @ 11:14 pm

  11. Here’s the last thing on my case for Biden:

    He’s a governing choice. Whether there are questions about his political savvy, it may be missing something critical: he’d be a damn fine Vice President.

    Which is, after all, the standard we should judge it by.

    Comment by Brad — 8/22/2008 @ 11:24 pm

  12. I think Biden’s a decent choice. I don’t know what makes a person “a damn fine Vice President,” though. The ability to look good at foreign funerals?

    Comment by Rojas — 8/22/2008 @ 11:26 pm

  13. Apparently Biden is getting secret service protection: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/us-secret-servi.html

    Comment by Cameron — 8/22/2008 @ 11:26 pm

  14. I don’t know what makes a person “a damn fine Vice President,” though. The ability to look good at foreign funerals?

    The two main qualifications seem to be dealing with the Senate and handling foreign affairs (of the sort the President can’t be doing all the time).

    Hard to find a man more qualified to do both than Biden.

    Comment by Brad — 8/22/2008 @ 11:50 pm

  15. Colin Powell?

    Comment by James — 8/23/2008 @ 12:33 am

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