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• Sunday, August 24, 2008 05:34 AM

  @RoyinKorea/Biden is the perfect choice--but is he a racist?

  First: Roy, that's one of the most well-written and well-thought-out posts I've read in a long time. Bravo for using the oft-neglected semicolon!

  Biden not only compensates for Obama's lack of foreign-policy experience; he also brings a certain down-to-earth, "regular guy" spirit that is sorely needed. One of Obama's flaws, if you can call it that, is that he's so polished; even when he's in what would sound like a rant from anyone else, he seems a little rehearsed. It's like he was in Toastmasters or something.

  Not so Joe. This is a guy who might stumble over his lines on occasion, but you can see the passion more obviously, and his colloquial delivery is more factory floor than Harvard Law.

  Biden also, I think, takes something away from McCain just by being near his age but so much more passionate. The physical contrast between the hoary old McCain and fresh-faced upstart Obama is obvious when you look at them side by side. But this also has served to remind people that McCain is more experienced.

  Now, with white-haired, feisty, sweat-rolling-from-the-brow Joe Biden on the ticket, McCain just looks like a tired, grumpy old man who's vaguely annoyed at something. I know that's a little unfair to McCain, whom I do respect for his exceptional bravery during Vietnam. But I think that the choice of Biden has usurped one of McCain's key advantages over Obama. He's made McCain go from being the experienced choice to the elderly choice.

  And on the issue of racism:

  I too have struggled to give Biden the benefit of the doubt about his unfortunate comments of yore. Obviously, saying that Obama is the first articulate, bright, clean, good looking black candidate is insensitive at best. But what is it most likely that Biden really meant? I think that by "clean" he must've meant "free from scandal." Obviously, there is no way he meant physical cleanliness. (Come on--do you really think he meant that Jesse Jackson didn't bathe? And if he was so racist as to think that, would he say it? To reporters?) Extremely bad choice of words, though.

  Is Obama the first articulate African American candidate? I disagree. Jesse Jackson was articulate, but in the style of the black church. Obama is much *more* articulate when it comes to discussing ideas; he is the first African American candidate whose oratory appeals as much to non-black Americans as to black Americans. Nor is Obama, to my mind, the first bright black candidate--Jackson was no dummy, but I think Obama seems smarter than just about anybody who's run since Teddy Roosevelt. And I think it's fair to say both men are good-looking; maybe Biden just isn't into mustaches. (If you think about it, doesn't Jackson kind of look like a cross between Gene Shalit and Rodney Dangerfield?)

  I think Biden probably thinks Jackson was kind of a joke--and maybe there was bad blood between those two back in '88 when they both ran.

  At any rate, I think what all this means is that Biden is a guy who has been impulsive in his commentary and cringingly imprecise in his choice of words. Not a good trait. But hopefully he'll rein it in.

  If Obama can live with that, so can I.

  And Biden's kitchen-table line had me shouting and waving my fists at the TV. 'Nuff said.

  —WashDCMan Read WashDCMan's other letters
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