JOE BIDEN

Why not?

I always liked the guy and still do. And I think his assets compliment Obama's, and vice versa.

You have to admit, they both have killer smiles. And both have terrific intellects. But Biden has the gianormous, as they say these days, foreign policy chops, offsetting McCain's supposed "experience" in this area (Biden's is more extensive and smarter, just go back and read his speeches and proposals and the bills he enacted or backed, etc.).

Biden has a great story too, (as does Obama, but his campaign seems incapable of getting it out there).

Biden also has a quick wit and is not afraid to tell the truth as he sees it. Something McCain has been touted for but in recent times has come across more as anger and confusion.

Sometimes Biden's shooting from the lip has gotten him into trouble, but it's almost always refreshing. That may cause a few awkward moments in the campaign, but he will make up for it by striking back quickly, humorously, and honestly when the McCain rightwing commandoes that now seem to be running his campaign throw out the kinds of spurious allegations that are unsubtatiated but still work if repeated enough without being counterattacked.

I'm glad it wasn't the Virginia governor or Evan Bayh, if only because they just don't come across as very exciting in speeches and presence, whereas Biden almost always does, because you never know what he might do, or say. But you know whatever it is, it will be coming from his real feelings and ideas, not some handler's script. (He's like a cross between JFK and Dennis Leary.)

(As for Hilary, and her many supporters who claim they will not vote for an Obama ticket, all you had to do was watch her last speech supposedly in support of Obama where she kept referring to him as "my opponent" to know where she's still coming from—resentment. The last thing Obama would need is that in a running mate, not even counting Bill's even more caustic remarks about Obama in recent weeks.)

The Republicans might try and bring up the one act that did seem scripted in Biden's many years in the public eye, and that's when twenty years ago or so, he copped a paragraph from a speech by an English politician. But, if you look into that occurance, you discover that what Biden really did was paraphrase something said in the speech because the guy was coming from a similar place, politically and life-experience-wise, and Biden liked the way he had said it.

But put that against Biden's story—one of the youngest Senators ever elected to Congress at 36 (THE youngest the way I remember it [actually he was 29 and has been in the Senate for 36 years, thanks to Kevin for reminding me of that]), his wife and their little daughter killed in a car accident, leaving him to raise their two sons on his own. Which he did, including spending every night at home with them in Deleware, something no other Senator or Congress person I ever heard of has done.

And now one of those sons is on his way to Iraq in the military, while Joe remains a terrific family man (his wife is a working woman, an English teacher in fact), a practicing Catholic and a champion of the working person, and basically a self-made man like Obama, putting himself through college through hardwork and intellect.

I'm looking forward to the debates between him and whoever McCain chooses (the only surprise would be if McCain chose a woman or a non-"white" running mate).