Ignore the right-wing outrage: Obama couldn't have found a better vice president than Biden
SATURDAY, AUG 18, 2012
From Salon.com
In one of the more futile spin attempts we’ve seen so far in the long and frequently annoying 2012 campaign for the White House, Republicans last week decided to go after Joe Biden, with various conservatives even suggesting that a decision to replace him on the ticket was around the corner.
Of course, in real life, Biden’s place is absolutely secure, and not just because presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Richard Nixon to George H.W. Bush learned that dumping a vice president isn’t as easy as one might think. None of that is relevant here. Why? Because Joe Biden is the practically perfect vice president. Truth is, he shouldn’t just stay on the ticket this time around; there’s a reasonable case to be made that he should stay on in 2016 and perhaps 2020, as well. He’s that good of a fit for the job.
The first job for any Veepstakes winner is to help the presidential nominee get all the way to the Oval Office. How to do that? Most studies have found that running mates can’t really help, but instead can hurt. So the first requirement is that any running mate appears sufficiently presidential, on the one hand, and avoids serious scandal, on the other. It’s surprising just how many vice presidential picks have failed one of these tests (Sarah Palin, of course, but Dan Quayle, Tom Eagleton, Spiro Agnew, Gerry Ferraro, perhaps Bob Dole back in 1976, and others all had problems, as well). Joe Biden? As far as I know, from 2008 to now, no one has questioned that the former chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and two-time presidential candidate wasn’t ready to step in if necessary. And he’s scandal-free — at least so far.
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rest of article here:
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/18/joe_biden_the_practically_perfect_vice_president/
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