Spitball Army

At 9:03:17 a.m. today, I received the following e-mail from info@barackobama.com, that was time-stamped at 4:31:39 a.m.:

Fred —

I have some important news that I want to make official.

I’ve chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.

Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois — the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.

I’m excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can’t do this alone.  We need your help to keep building this movement for change.

Please let Joe know that you’re glad he’s part of our team.  Share your personal welcome note and we’ll make sure he gets it:  http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe

Thanks for your support,
Barack

P.S. — Make sure to turn on your TV at 2:00 p.m. Central Time to join us or watch online at http://www.BarackObama.com.
[followed by, so as to not miss an opportunity:]

No, I did not receive “the text message” at or around 3:00 a.m. or even later, even though I had signed up to receive it.  Sounds like if I had been up before 3:00 a.m., though, I could have heard the news on the Tube.

My favored Democratic presidential candidate from the very beginning of this process was Joe Biden, so I was quite pleased with Obama’s choice.  It makes my November vote that much more comfortable.

Being somewhat of a political junkie, I have had the TV on this morning, listening to the punditry on most of the stations (excepting Fox News).  Joe Scarborough has been prattling on endlessly about Biden’s “big mouth” and tendency toward verbosity.  “Long-winded,” was what at least one guest on his show labelled Biden’s tendency toward a slow-building style of oratory that does not reward short attention spans.  I imagine, and hope, that in a short time, the concentration on this trait of Biden’s will diminish and we can all start focusing on issues and ideas that really matter and affect us (I think that larger dialogue has begun, hasn’t it?!).

From an early Democratic Presidential Debate on MSNBC:

The gaggle of media persons in shorts and t-shirts with coffee cups in hand has been the standard cutaway on most of the morning shows.  What on earth are they expecting to get by loitering in the Biden family driveway in Wilmington, Delaware?  Last night, as Biden drove from his home, a reporter asked if he had anything to report.  Biden, through the car window, responded, “A successful dump!” referring to a load of lumber he had hauled away in his pickup truck earlier in the day.  ROFL (as might be seen in a text message).

Scarborough (again) and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC interviewed Richard Ben Cramer over the phone this morning.  Cramer wrote the book What It Takes: The Way to the White House, a monumental (in size and scope) work of journalistic reportage on the 1988 Presidential race.  A good chunk of Cramer’s book focuses on Biden and his initial bid for the U.S. Presidency, examining his skill at negotiation and dogged pursuit of goals, as in this excerpt about the purchase of the old DuPont mansion, which had fallen into a sorry state of disrepair and was facing the wrecking ball:

Joe did a $200,000 deal for the house.  That was more than he had, of course.  But Biden never let money stand in the way of a deal.  He got in the developer’s face and started talking – fast.  It’s like the stutter left it all pent up, and when he starts talking deal, he goes at a gallop.  But the beautiful thing is the way he talks deal.  By the time Joe’s finished talking, it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t have a thousand dollars cash…in fact, that no one would see any cash, for years.  When Joe Biden gets going on a deal, he’ll talk that deal until it’s shimmering before your eyes in God’s holy light…like the Taj Mahal…where do I sign?

Two or three months ago, I scraped the BIDEN ’08 sticker off of my rear bumper.  I never, ever put bumper stickers on my vehicle, with a particularly self-righteous “against my religion” fervor.  I must be getting soft in my advanced age, as I had made an exception in this case (as in the case of the MY OTHER CAR IS A VULTURE WHALE sticker, which I applied on the other side of the rear bumper in consideration of one of my favorite Birmingham bands).  But I’m ready for my Obama-Biden bumper sticker…has anybody got one available yet?