Across the pond

The newspapers on both sides of the pond generally gave Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden, the 65 year old senator from Delaware, as his vice-presidential running mate, the thumbs up. The London Sunday Times headlined their story:

Barack Obama opts for ‘bare knuckle fighter Joe Biden

But when you read the story you find that it is in fact favourable to Biden. This particular bare knuckle fighter is also the widely respected chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, who has considerable knowledge and experience of the world’s major trouble spots and knows many foreign prime ministers personally.

Obama certainly needs a boost for his campaign. His lead over John McCain in the polls has dwindled away to almost nothing in recent weeks, as McCain has cashed in on American worries about the the threats overseas, particularly the belligerant actions of Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Although he has halted the march of the Russian tanks on the Georgian capital Tibilsi, Russian troops are still on Georgian soil.

And, as the Sunday Times points out, the fight for the President’s job is going to get dirtier and dirtier as the election approaches. According to their reporter, Republican activists are already suggesting ‘Osama bin Biden’ car stickers.

The Mail on Sunday also has a negative headline.

Obama picks senator who ‘stole’ Neil Kinnock’s speech as his running mate

This story harks back to 1988 when Biden was forced to abandon his own presidential campaign after it was revealed that his speech highlighting his working class roots was a plagiarism of a speech by Britain’s then Labour leader. But the Mail story goes on to tell readers that Biden and Kinnock are now firm friends. According to the Mail,

Lord Kinnock said last night that the last time they met the senator introduced him to aides by saying: ‘Do you know this guy? He used to be my greatest speechwriter.

The Observer highlights a slip of the tongue by Obama when he introduced Biden to the crowd of 35,000 in Springfield, Illinois yesterday. Obama introduced him as the ‘next President’, before quickly correcting that to ‘the next vice-president of the United States.

The slip, I think, probably does reflect the relationship between the two men. They have become friends since Obama joined the Senate foreign relations committee, but Biden is vastly more experienced. Which suggests that Obama meant what he said when he claimed to want a running mate who would not be a yes person.

The Observer also notes Biden’s impeccable working class credentials and trade union links. Biden is a working class Irish Catholic, still something of a rough diamond, which is a sharp contrast to Obama, whose speeches make it clear that despite his own humble origins he has lived most of his life as a teacher at that most elite of American universities, Harvard. And, now, as in Jack Kennedy’s time, there are still plenty of American voters who distrust ‘eggsheads’.

Most of the papers report that the choice gives some ammunition for McCain, because at the start of this Presidential campaign Biden made a speech in which he characterised Obama as ‘not ready’ to be President and said that a President did not have time for on the job training.

The analysis article in the Washington Post emphasises that Obama’s choice is pragmatic and that it will help Obama get those Hillary Clinton supporters amongst the working classes of the industrial heartlands to the polls. That article also suggests that the choice has a powerful emotional appeal, because both the personal biographries of both men demonstrate that the American dream – that any citizen whatever his or her origins can aspire to become President – is not entirely a myth.