Hennessy’s View

CNN’s John King has confirmed from two unnamed sources that ultra-liberal Joe Biden is Obama’s veep choice. 

When you want to bury a story, you release it on Friday after 3:00 p.m.  So, why did the Obama campaign release the news on the worst night in the news cycle?

Because Biden was the party’s choice, not Obama’s.

Obama wanted a young candidate, a liberal, who would make Obama look stronger, older, weightier.  His drop in the polls gave the party insiders more influence.  They wanted Biden to give the ticket strength.

Obama got to pick the time, and he picked the midnight hour on a Friday.

Obama is a disaster for the Democrats, and Biden won’t help.  News will trickle out over the next week about the inside politics that forced Obama to take Biden.  Obama’s bump will turn into a drop before the GOP convention is done.

It’s looking more and more likely that John McCain will be the next President of the United States.

**Update:  Obama’s mishandling of the VP announcement will go down as an interesting side note in the history of presidential elections.  Patrick Ruffini lays out the series of failures that resulted in, not only anti-climax, but actual dishonesty and inconvenience.  Obama promised to make you the “first to know” by sending him your cell phone number.  Instead, people watching CNN, FoxNews, ABC, or any news web site were first to know–four hours before text messages woke up potential voters at 3:00 a.m.  (It’s not nice to wake up voters in the wee hours of a Saturday morning, but that’s lost on a man who never worked a day in his life.)

Also, Ed Morrissey recognizes the lameness of the announcement, the demontration of immaturity and ignorance rampant in the process.  He’s right.

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After hours staking out Joe Biden’s Delaware home with no sign of the prospective VP candidate, reporters are now witnessing a flurry of activity.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – Activity at the Bidens « – Blogs from CNN.com

 UPDATE:  Wizbang coverage.

Barack Obama might the Democrat’s Bob Dole.

I quit writing “The Hennessy Report” for Town Hall in 1996 because I was so sickened by the combination of President Clinton and Candidate Dole.  The GOP nominated Dole because “it was his turn.”  Helluvaway to pick a president.

In 1996, the Republicans ran a bassackwards ticket.  The more electable, more charismatic, more conservative candidate, Jack Kemp, was on the bottom of the ticket.  Had Kemp been on top, Clinton might well have been a one-term president.  But, noooooooo; we nominated Bob “Third Person” Dole and got beat like a drum.

Barack Obama has been a weak candidate since about March.  He won the nomination because his camp had a superior strategy for winning delegates according the Democrat rules.  Once people started paying attention, though, Barack started to look less shiny.

Since “winning” the nomination in June, Obama’s campaign has been a disaster.  Only George W. Bush’s unpopularity has saved Obama from free-fall, a brokered convention, and excuses for why the Democrat delegates turned on him and nominated Hillary Clinton in violation of the Democrats’ stated rules.

Despite an 8 to 1 press coverage advantage over McCain, Barack has fallen from 12 point to a 0 or -5 point lead thanks to great campaigning by McCain and terrible campaigning by Obama.

So he picks Joe Biden.

Biden was the best choice among the Democrats who ran this year.  He has “gravitas,” which Obama does not.  He has experience, which Obama does not.

But Biden does nothing as vice president, because no one votes for vice president.

By selecting Biden, Obama admitted he is incapable of running the country.  In so doing, Obama has given the Republicans the last piece of evidence they need to convince Americans that there is only one choice this year:  John McCain.

BTW, CNN just reported that the media will not report Joe Biden’s gaffes.  Thanks, CNN.  We knew you’d cheat.  And they’ve used the term “gravitas” three times, admitting that Obama has none.

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I don’t know how meaningful this FoxNews poll is, really. But it is revealing about America’s confidence in the relative judgment of McCain and Obama.

American’s trust McCain more than 3 to 1 over Obama.

That’s big.

If you had to make the “toughest decision” of your life, who would you rather get advice from — Obama or McCain?

Based on that question, there are signs that undecided voters may be more inclined to move to McCain than to Obama. The largest number of undecideds – 38 percent – would rather get advice from McCain – that’s nearly three times as many as the 13 percent that would go to Obama. The remaining say “neither” (27 percent) or are unsure (18 percent).

Furthermore, independent voters pick McCain by a 15-point margin (41 percent – 26 percent).

Not surprising. McCain has run a masterful campaign and he owns the framing of every issue and of the campaign overall.

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MSNBC says sources confirmed that both Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine have been given the “thanks, but no thanks” call from Obama.

That leaves Joe Biden and dark horses.

Assume it’s Biden.

The curious thing is the Obama/Bayh ’08 stickers being produced in Kansas City. Of course, that could be misdirection. Gill Studios, the outfit producing the stickers, is on the Obama payroll, along with ACORN and other criminal organizations, according to Michelle Malkin.

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On August 21, Obama thought the mics were off. They weren’t. They picked up the Democrat candidate’s glowing report on the quality of life in China. Obama also encourage US businesses to relocate operations in China:

Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, “Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”

Wow. The man who wants to be POTUS tells business that Beijing is “a pretty good option” for location.

Apparently, Obama is the least informed man in America about the standard of living in Beijing. In the run-up to the Olympics, massive, international protests deplored China’s horrible human rights abuses that continued right up until the opening ceremony.

• Beijing’s rampant slums were cleared and replaced with happy facades to hide the poverty, misery, and despair from international media and visitors.
• Smog so thick that athletes were afraid to train blanketed Beijing and will again when the Olympians leave town.
• The Gobi Dessert is about 10 years away from overtaking the city proper.
• Pollution is wiping out life from Beijing’s lakes, ponds, and rivers.

For a man claimed to be the smartest man alive, that’s a really stupid thing to say, both cognitively and politically.  It demonstrates an acute unfamiliarity with business, working, and living conditions in the most populous country on earth.  It also demonstrates an almost contemptuous disregard for the sensitivies to the issue among those who’ve lost jobs to foriegn countries.

Perhaps the messiah would be more comfortable as President of the People’s Republic.

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