Joe Biden For President

No, because not all politicians have beein in the positions that Biden was in to effect things. For example, he was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee when Thomas came before it and embroidered the truth -- and I'm being very kind here -- and got rolled by the WH and the Republicans. "Strange Justice" is a nice account of it.
I don't have a real problem with Biden, except I think he's something of a show pony. And the Imus thing, of course.

 

Biden
Clinton
Obama

Gun to head who is best suited to run the country for the next 4 years?

 

Gun to my head, right now? Biden, because none of us knows enough about Obama to make an informed decision.

Luckily, we have around 22 months to find out if Obama is qualified.

 

Three way tie.
None of them have established more credibility in the context of your question than either of the other two -- although Obama was against this war when the other two were (IMHO) voting in favor of it out of what were purely political reasons.

 

or if he has contracted lung cancer

 

Obama is a pack a day man -

 

I didn't realize he smokes. Interesting.

 

Here's the thing with Biden. Here he is in the WaPo.

I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively."

OK, good tough statement, and one with which I largely agree. Now what will he actually DO to prevent that from happening? That's always been the question I've had about him.
For the record, I could vote for him before I could vote for HRC.

 

Fenian, my excellent friend, I've spent four years doing the Arnold/Maria thing, smiling and nodding at appropriate times, knowing that someday I would get him over to our side. We may just be talking about Biden, gun to head, which is how I always like to pick a president, but work with me here, yes?

 

I think you could probably find a way to get me to vote for Pat Buchanan, you wily minx.

Oh, and I apparently have my answer.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/01/note-to-senator-biden-president-is-not.html
Showpony.

 

I like Biden, but I agree with FB that this is his biggest problem. He's too much of a realist. I appreciate that he doesn't play extreme partisan games, that he speaks his mind, that he is very intellgient and that he truly seems to be most interested in what is best for the country. But he has refused to stick his neck out and jeopordize his position when it comes to important issues. The Thomas/Hill affair is a perfect example.

Another perfect point is the war in Iraq -- he has already taken discussion of cutting the funding off of the table. Why? That threat is the only weapon which Congress has, yet he has already stated that it is a non starter. Because he knows that, at the end of the day, it won't work, so he's already mentally moved forward to the end game without seeing how everything plays out. However, sometimes, you need to try something which might not always make political common sense.

 

I'd vote for Al Gore again in a split second. He was the right choice in 2000 and remains the right choice. People have now had six years to realize this and I think he'd carry enough states that all of the Katherine Harrises and crooked Supreme Court justices in the the country couldn't stop him. He's still relatively young (58), well rested and has a lot to offer.