All Things in Moderation

Speaking of Joe Biden . . .

6 Responses

1. 

   quarterback, on April 27, 2012 at 4:44 am said:

   I find Biden to be one of the worst things about Obama. That is, whenever I see or hear Biden, I puzzle over whether Obama chose him because Obama actually believes the guy is intelligent, competent, and has “gravitas,” or because he is so manifestly lacking in all those and other redeeming qualities and was picked to make Obama look larger by contrast. Both possibilities are disturbing, but I honestly can’t see a third.

   Speaking of Presidents and Vice Presidents, I saw this at Glenn Reynolds’ place:

   “UPDATE: A reader emails: “My theory is Obama represents the supremacy (however short-lived) of the beta-male. The only people who think he’s a hep-cat are hipster betas and 60′s radical-nostalgia dopes (also perennial personal-risk-averse betas who never did anything bold on their own). It’s all projection, much like the rest of the way that demographic operates.”

   While I am sure Obama is not an “alpha male,” I am not sure any of our recent Presidents were. In fact, I’m not sure I can think of many Presidents at all who were. Perhaps this reflects my skepticism about the whole alpha/beta paradigm, but it is an interesting question to ponder for a moment.

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   • 

     markinaustin, on April 27, 2012 at 5:46 am said:

     Perhaps this reflects my skepticism about the whole alpha/beta paradigm

     I respectfully suggest that your skepticism is quite mild, or is offset by your interest in the theme.
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     The service academies look for men and women who are top 5% or so academically, who are physically durable, and who have demonstrated some measure of leadership quality. Point guards and quarterbacks, team captains in everything from baseball to debating, class officers, yearbook editors; whatever metric exists in HS to demonstrate the ability to coalesce a group around the candidate, any evidence of leadership potential is examined.

     In 2004, both nominees had demonstrated plenty of leadership potential. I will remind you that BHO had been President of the Harvard Law Review and that well known lawyers, including conservatives, who worked with him said he was exceptionally good at managing a bunch of brilliant egos in a way they all thought was fair, and all subscribed to.
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     I reject gender stereotype as useful. I also think that even demonstrated leadership in one field – say, having been a successful editor or a well respected team captain, is no guarantee of leadership in another. However, demonstrated leadership, coupled with more widely distributed talents like intelligence and wit are what we actually have to choose from as qualifiers. Then we have to look for disqualifiers, like terrible character defects, and hope we catch them long before the criminal trial. And that is just for the pols we agree with.

     Because if we don’t agree with them, we consider their personal traits irrelevant, at best.

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     • 

       markinaustin, on April 28, 2012 at 9:25 am said:

       I don’t know what basis you would have for saying that, but, whatever.

       You chose to quote someone who applied terms describing wolfpack social order to human beings.

       You evidently chose to interpret my comment as strictly partisan

       I did not think that your somewhat skeptical presentation of the comment you cited was partisan.

       Your characterization of Biden was of course partisan, but I did not address it and don’t intend to.

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2. 

   quarterback, on April 27, 2012 at 6:12 am said:

   I respectfully suggest that your skepticism is quite mild, or is offset by your interest in the theme.

   I don’t know what basis you would have for saying that, but, whatever.

   I am quite well aware that BHO was President of HLR. But from there I think you veer off the mark. He was elected because he was deemed more acceptable by the conservative block than other, more inflammatory left wingers. A political operator is not the same as a leader, and I can safely tell you that, to me, the idea of deferring to the person of BHO or “following” his lead is risible.

   You evidently chose to interpret my comment as strictly partisan, but it obviously was not. I could take the argument in a partisan direction related to competing political world views, but my comment had nothing to do with that argument.

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3. 

   Fairlington Blade, on April 28, 2012 at 9:42 am said:

   I’m reminded of a recent comment by Benson (a frequent conservative Post commenter). Biden criticized Romney over foreign policy and Benson commented that Biden has no knowledge of foreign policy (or words to that effect). I responded with the comment that Biden was former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. One can legitimately criticize him for positions. Hitting for intelligence of knowledge is obviously partisan and will be dismissed by those who disagree out of hand.

   [Benson might be an interesting addition here. Even though I tease him for spamming the Post boards, it’s practically a full time job for him to enter comments. He rarely descends into comment thread spots and invariably generates longer threads.]

   Biden filled out two aspects of the ticket. First off, connection to blue collar white voters. Criticisms of Biden about his off the cuff style are the flip side of those who criticized Bush. Both are intelligent men and both understand how to connect to voters far better than the two most recent MA-based nominees.

   I would have preferred Mark Warner or Tim Kaine over Biden. Then again, I enthusiastically wanted Hillary as the Veep nominee. Obama (correctly) calculated that he didn’t need her on the ticket to unite the party and worried about skeletons in the closet.

   BB

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4. 

   Fairlington Blade, on April 28, 2012 at 9:47 am said:

   Sorry, went back and forth a bit. Second was adding experience to the ticket. That was meant as a segue to Kaine or Warner (both govs, both with executive experience), but then worked on the Benson bit.

   BB

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