Joe Biden and Other Stuff

I have a lot of respect for Joe Biden, and I am very enthused by the idea of him being Barack Obama's running mate. Joe Biden has always struck me as a reasonable, thoughtful individual, and I think his experience will assist Obama in his campaign, despite the negative comments made by Biden about Obama back in the debates.

More than that, though, I am enthused by the entire Presidential race this year. If only John McCain would choose Mike Huckabee as his running mate, I'd have all four of the candidates I was most interested in running on the two tickets.

1988 was the first year that I could vote for the President of the United States. I was 20 years old at the time. To be honest, I didn't really know enough to vote back then. I voted for Bush because I had grown up with Reagan as President and thought he'd done a really good job, and I saw Bush as a continuation of Reagan. That was about the whole thought process at the time (I also voted for the Kentucky lottery that year, a vote I would very much like to take back now.).

So I don't really count myself as having seriously voted for President until 1992, when Bush and Clinton opposed one another. And for every election from 1992 on, I have never really been excited about any of the candidates. And truth be told, I only once voted for the winner in all that time (and you could put an asterisk on that win anyway, as I'm talking about Bush's first victory over Gore, which he may not have won without the Supreme Court's intervention).

Uh, I guess, without meaning to, I just gave away what all of my votes for President have been for my entire life. Oh well.

Anyway, to get back to my point, I never really cared for anyone on any of those tickets. I always felt like I was voting for the lesser of two evils.

I don't feel that way this year. I'm leaning pretty heavily toward Obama/Biden right now, but I like John McCain as well. In fact, after learning about him during his run for the Republican nomination in 2000, I really came to respect the man for his courage and his ability to do what he felt was right party be damend, and I decided then and there that if he ever ran for election again I'd go so far as to campaign for him. And I probably would have, too, but his campaign initially sounded very much like a reiteration of everything George Bush had done for the previous 7 years, and I didn't want another 4 years of Bush, so I soured on him a little. Lately, though, he has moderated his position somewhat.

The point is I think I'll be happy with either candidate. I just hope that in the process of competing for President these two men--whom I respect and admire very much--don't stoop to hammer each other until there's nothing left in the end but a couple of ordinary politicians.