Obama taps Joe Biden for VP...

Well, he will at least guarantee Delaware's three electoral votes.  I'm sure Obama was sweating over that.  Assuming of course he actually sweats.

Gateway Pundit reminds us, in case we forgot, of what Biden had to say about Obama in 2007:

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.)
On African American Rival Barack Obama
January 2007

Talk about a great sound bite.  I doubt the McCain team will use Biden's embarrassing comment but the blogosphere and talking heads surely will.  McCain will not need to use it though, there's too much else out there and McCain has wasted no time capitalizing on it.  "The presidency is not something that lends itself to on the job training":

Obama's inexperience is probably McCain's best argument and what a gift that Obama's own running mate can be quoted to highlight the message.  And Biden's the gift that keeps on giving.  Obama's message of change in Washington took a nose-dive with this pick.  Biden has been in Washington longer than John McCain.  Ed Morrissey:

But in the end, one has to wonder how Hope and Change and “cleaning up Washington” fits with selecting a running mate who’s been there longer than John McCain. More than half of Biden’s 66 years have been spent in the Senate; he took office during the Nixon Administration.  All of those ads about how John McCain was responsible for the state of the nation because he’d been in office for over 25 years now apply equally to Barack Obama’s running mate.

And there's more:

Campaigning for president in New Hampshire in 1987, Biden admitted he had misstated several facts about his resume after a man named Frank questioned his Syracuse Law School resume.

''I think I have a much higher I.Q. than you do," Biden responded.

He added that he ''went to law school on a full academic scholarship - the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship,'' adding that he ''ended up in the top half'' of his class (not true) and ''graduated with three degrees from college" (not true).

Five months later, Biden acknowledged that he graduated 76th in a class of 85. ''I did not graduate in the top half of my class at law school and my recollection of this was inaccurate," he said in a statement.  He graduated with one degree -- a B.A. -- in two majors, history and political science.

''I exaggerate when I'm angry,'' Biden told the New York Times, ''but I've never gone around telling people things that aren't true about me...'I guess every single word I've ever said is going to be dissected now.''

Exaggerates when he's angry?  Not a confidence inspiring trait for a Vice-President.   And this statement is a howler: I've never gone around telling people things that aren't true about me.  As for his "full academic scholarship", Biden got a partial scholarship based on financial need.  Nothing wrong with that but it's a far cry from an academic scholarship. 

Here's another little inconvenient truth Obama either didn't know about or ignored.  From Obama's website:

“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”

That might be problematic for Biden:

Biden has accepted $5,133,072 in contributions from lawyers and lobbyists since 2003. Obama does not accept contributions from federally registered lobbyists.

Biden's own son is a registered Washington lobbyist:

And he has one other weakness that hasn't received much attention to date. One of Biden's sons, Hunter, is a registered Washington lobbyist in a year in which Obama has been excoriating lobbyists and the culture of corruption in Washington. The younger Biden is a name partner at the firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair and seems to have specialized in lobbying for just the kind of earmark spending by Congress that Obama has vowed to slash. Republican insiders say the party is likely to make an issue of Biden's family lobbying ties.

Ed Morrissey:

It looks like Obama didn’t just throw Hope and Change under the bus, but himself right along with it.  Whether this is hypocrisy or incompetence, it’s stunning either way.

I guess the icing on the cake is Barack Obama's own bungling of the VP announcement:

Barack is about to choose a running mate, and he wants you to know first. You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be part of this important moment.

Sign up today and we'll send you an email announcing Barack's running mate.

You can also text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone.

Captain Ed got the email message at 4:50 AM ET (the text message was received by this person at 3:00 AM), hours after it had already been reported by the media:

I’m not sure a political campaign could possibly screw up a running-mate announcement as badly as Team Obama.  The e-mail message that the world awaited for days finally came — at 4:50 am ET. As widely known late the evening before, Barack Obama picked Joe Biden to be his VP nominee, but apparently he didn’t want too many people to know it...

Comments

[Don]

Obama’s choosing Biden is no surprise to me. Four days ago I predicted that would be his choice. If you want verification of that just go to http://www.gulfeast.com/index.php/OAN_Political_Blog/comments/28_hours_to_go/ and you can see where I (aka DonS) said predicted that on August 19 in my comment.

[Julie]

Your prediction was on the money. I was hoping he'd pick Biden. Considering Biden's miserable showing in the Democratic primaries I don't think he helps Obama that much. I wonder if he would have picked Edwards if his love child hadn't been exposed? I think that would have been a harder ticket to defeat. Not to mention Obama/Clinton!

I'm having a little fun with the Biden pick but I know when McCain selects his running-mate the shoe will be on the other foot and he or she will get the same treatment from the Dems. Especially if McCain picks someone who ran in the primaries (such as Mitt Romney).

[Don]

It will certainly be interesting to see which rabbit McCain pulls out of his hat. It may give some indication of what his mindset is, or at least what he wants voters to think it is. Do I just have too low an expectation that candidates will be open and honest with voters?