From my point of view, Senator Joe Biden is an inspiring, experienced, over-the-top smart, fast-running boss who is a handful. He wrestles with ideas. He wrestles with his team. They knock him back. He knocks them back. He gives great zinger speeches and occasionally zinger gaffes. And they all laugh it off and move forward….
I had the opportunity a few years ago to enjoy a rolling set of events with Senator Joe Biden, Wes Clark and other national notables. My partner was with me and normally hates these kinds of things. But he bonded with Jill Biden.
Pawlenty is down. Kaine and Bayh are falling in the Intrade prediction markets. But Joe Biden and Mitt Romney are surging.
The one concern that many in the VP prediction games have had is that there was a “sleeper candidate.” One of Joe Biden’s close allies who kept telling me that they have heard nothing from the Obama camp and that there had been full “radio silence” pondered whether there was a sleeper candidate.
Imagine if you were OpenLeft‘s Matt Stoller — and he woke up one day and he decided he couldn’t take the drift in the Democratic Party any longer — and he quit. Stoller became an independent or even a McCain-supporting Republican.
John McCain got right on the edge of class warfare language along the lines that his pal (though resigned from the campaign) and potential Treasury Secretary Phil Gramm did when the former Texas Senator accused Americans of being a “nation of whiners“.
The day after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation from his office under threat of impeachment earlier this week, I chaired a discussion with Pakistan Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani.
There has been movement between the Obama campaign and General Wesley Clark’s team on the issue of his playing some kind of role at the Democratic National Convention. The Obama campaign did reach out to Clark in the last several days to try and find some accommodation.
Stream videos at Ustream Today, I am hosting two events at the New America Foundation which will stream live here at The Washington Note.
The Obama campaign needs to reverse course and reach out to General Wesley Clark who is the No. 1 most requested surrogate by Democratic Party fundraisers. He is a thoughtful, top tier, command experienced strategist. He once told me that we need to organize an “Urgent Action Climate Change Task Force.
