Labor Day

Slow weekend on the blog as everyone is participating in Labor Day festivities. Enjoy your holiday weekend and I’ll be back on Tuesday.

Palin named VP pick for McCain

John McCain has selected the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate for the 2008 Elections. The official announcement is expected to come momentarily at a rally in Dayton, Ohio. This is coming off the heels of Obama’s historic acceptance speech last night at the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

Personally, I feel that a woman VP is not a bad choice to help balance McCain’s image as a conservative old man. Unfortunately, I don’t think Palin is quite the right choice to be this woman. She is VERY inexperienced as she has only been governor for a year in Alaska. The democrats will have a field day ripping into her as they have already unearthed that she is under investigation for trying to get her ex brother-in-law fired from a committee position. When she is debating against Joe Biden, she will be slaughtered like a lamb as he literally has 35x the amount of experience as her. McCain is already looking weak coming off the DNC and this pick will not help him enough in the long run.

Bill Clinton at the DNC

Last night former President Bill Clinton gave his speech at day 3 of the Democratic National Convention. It was a tremendous speech that reminded us why Bill Clinton was the greatest president in my generation. Tonight Barack Obama speaks in front of a crowd estimated of 80,000 people. Only the second time a candidate will accept a nomination in a setting – the first was John F. Kennedy. Here’s the full vid of Clinton’s speech:

Citizens Beware

I plan on buying this fine piece of machinery, the lancer from Gears of War 2 and walking around the city fighting off any locusts that dare show their face. Amazon has begun taking pre-orders for the low price of 139.99 which gets you the gun and the game. I am now accepting donations.

Ted Kennedy at the DNC

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, kicked off the Democratic National Convention last night in Denver. It was believed that this would be the first convention that he would miss in 40 years as he recently went under surgery for a brain tumor but he still made it and gave an inspiring speech. If there is one person to bring the party together, it’s probably Ted Kennedy. Tonight Hillary Clinton will be giving a speech, check back tomorrow for video of that.

T.I. and Rihanna sample an internet hit

Here at the blog we have been chronicling the upcoming, much anticipated release of T.I.’s new album “Paper Trail” due out September 30th. Another song has leaked off the record, this one is a duet with Rihanna and features a sample of the Numa Numa song featured on a viral video from a few years ago. Take a gander:

Oh No You Didn’t

Quite possibly the greatest video game commercial ever.

Warner to start in Arizona

One of the greatest QB’s to ever grace the frozen tundra, Kurt Warner, is set to start for the Arizona Cardinals this season according to sources at ESPN. Warner gets the job after some pathetic performances by Matt Leinart, someone who even makes Aaron Rodgers early draft pick look legit. It’s about time the Cards front office picks a winner and Warner should be set to have another stellar season like last year. This picture is of him answering my phone call asking if I can stuff my face in his crotch. Long live #13.

Reaction to Biden

24 hours have passed since Delaware Senator Joe Biden (D) was announced as Barack Obama’s running mate for the 2008 presidential election. The official announcement took place today in Springfield, Illinois the place where Obama kicked off his run for president about 2 years ago. Living in the world of instant news these days, the announcement wasn’t a surprise at the 2 pm speech because CNN broke the story around 1 am last night, due to some leaks in Obama’s camp. So where does that leave us heading into the ever so important 4 day democratic convention in Denver next week? McCain was quick to denounce Biden as a poor choice and said that it shows Obama is not as confident as he may appear. The left wing media seems to be behind the decision so far, even though Biden’s past is certainly sketchy. So who is Joe Biden and will this turn out to be a smart move?

As far as the other candidates for VP goes, Biden is probably the most politically qualified. He became a senator at the young age of 29 and has had 2 presidential runs himself (1988,2008). Biden is an ivy league scholar and a pillar of the democratic party. Biden’s main selling points are on 2 very important issues that Obama really needed to win on. Biden is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a chief expert on international policy. Biden is very respected in the Senate and is even a friend of McCain’s. Biden will be bringing 35 years of experience to counteract criticism of Obama not being ready. Another major selling point is that Biden comes from working class roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The battleground states for this election will be Pennsylvania and Ohio and hopefully Biden can get PA in the bag for Obama.

Unfortunately for the good, there must be the bad. Leading up to the primaries it was Biden himself who was Obama’s biggest critic. Biden has stated publically that he didn’t feel Obama was ready to handle the presidency. He also made semi-racist comments about Indian’s and said Obama was one of the “cleanest, well put together, african americans he’s seen.” Both of these comments got him major flack and are already coming back to haunt him. Then you have his infamous 1988 presidential run where he was in a position of coming very close to obtaining the democratic party nomination. That was until it was discovered he had been copying speeches from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. He admitted to the plagiarism and was forced to drop out of the race. His bid earlier this year ended even quicker. Biden does bring the visual of an old well established white man to the ticket which will help go up against McCain’s image, but he is known to be long winded in speeches and doesn’t always know when to stop. Biden once told a reporter he “thinks he has a much higher IQ than him” after being asked about his ivy league education. He has also stated that he loves to hear himself talk, and has spent much of his interviews in the past going on tangents about his family and personal life.

I think Obama may have shown a little weakness with Biden but there aren’t too many better candidates that he had to choose from. I think the positive part about Biden as VP is that he is a fighter and will stick his ground in debates and on important issues. He is a roman catholic but liberal enough to support abortion. He originally voted for the war in Iraq but since then has admitted his mistake and has constantly questioned President Bush’s actions. Biden is a family man that experienced a very big tragedy in life when his wife and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when a tractor-trailer broad-sided her station wagon. While this event happened decades ago and he has since remarried and had kids with another woman, it could still make a great personal interest story to pull the heart strings of voters.

Only time will tell how Joe Biden will fare on the campaign trail, but with a strong VP candidate in his corner Barack Obama has made himself a well rounded force to be reckoned with. I’ll have some coverage throughout the Democratic National Convention this week. For more information on Obama’s campaign click here.

BIDEN AS OBAMA’S VP

Delaware senator Joe Biden is announced as Barack Obama’s running mate for the 2008 presidential election. The following story is from the Associated Press:

Barack Obama told everyone he wanted a running mate who will challenge his thinking, and now he’s got one. Joe Biden’s tendency to speak his own mind—and speak and speak—is entwined in his DNA.
The loquacious Delaware senator brings more than verbiage to Obama’s side. Biden is a foreign policy heavyweight with a decade longer in the Senate than the seasoned Republican presidential candidate, John McCain. That’s almost three more decades of experience than his new boss.

In Washington, Biden, 65, is known as a collegial figure even when he’s competitive—one who can spin flowery praise one moment and biting fulmination the next.

His second presidential campaign faltered early on, just one of the Democrats shunted to the sidelines as the bracing contest between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton sucked the air out of the rest of the field.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is one of the most influential foreign policy voices in Congress. An internationalist and strong supporter of the United Nations, he is a leading critic of what he sees as the vague, unilateralist approach of President Bush.

Biden voted in 2002 to authorize the Iraq invasion, which Obama opposed from the start. Since then, he’s become a firm critic of the conflict and pushed through a resolution last year declaring that Bush’s troop increase—now considered a military success—was “not in the national interest.”

One of the youngest politicians ever elected to the Senate—he was 29—Biden entered the 1988 Democratic presidential primary promising to “rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.” He reluctantly quit the race three months later after he was caught lifting lines from a speech by a British Labour Party leader.

In his latest effort, Biden proved to be a cheerful campaigner who mixed easily with voters, got along with rivals and displayed a self-deprecating sense of humor that leavened debates and speeches. When he was asked in one debate whether he’s much too wordy, he drew laughs with a one-word answer, “No.”

Obama jumped in to defend him on another occasion when he was asked if he had a problem with minorities.

The question was rooted in Biden’s occasional gaffes. He had apologized earlier for describing Obama as “articulate” and “clean” in one unguarded episode that was taken by some to have a racial overtone. And he’d had to defend his remark that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

Biden confronted tragedy five weeks after his first election. In 1972, his first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when a tractor-trailer broad-sided her station wagon as she drove home with a family Christmas tree. His sons Beau and Hunt were badly hurt.

He was sworn in from the hospital bedside of one his sons and still won’t work on Dec. 18, the date of the accident.

In 1977, Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs. They have a daughter, Ashley. Both of his sons are lawyers, and the elder son, Beau, was elected state attorney general of Delaware in November.

Biden himself had a close brush with death in February 1988, when he was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms. It was seven months before he could return to the Senate.