The media, shockingly enough, is missing one of the biggest stories surrounding Barack Obama's decision to put Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket: How this a pick not only about foreign policy but also about the bread and butter economic issues that are shaping the election.
You can already see the squawking. Here's the Associated Press' Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier effectively serving as a McCain surrogate in talking about the Biden choice. Much of the talk on the cable nets is about Biden's foreign policy strength and his gravitas.
But the one thing we're not hearing a lot of is the fact that Biden does reinforce Obama's narrative of late vis a vis the economy, specifically John McCain being out of touch. While McCain is someone who is wealthy enough not to know how many houses he and his wife own, Biden is not a wealthy man. He's no elitist who believes that those earning under $5 million per year aren't rich. While he embodies a lot of things about Washington -- he's been there for a long time, of course -- he has commuted to and from his home in Deleware ever since being elected rather than maintaining primary residence inside the Beltway like so many others on Capitol Hill. Even the city he was born in -- Scranton, Pennsylvania -- kind of embodies this connection to working Americans.
I'm not going to say that going into the process I was hoping that Obama would choose Biden, or that he was even at the top of my list going into this morning. What's more, it's worth noting that on at least one substantive economic issue, bankruptcy reform, Biden's positions have been decidedly not populist (though that can be chalked up to protecting a home state industry). That all said, Biden is a pick that I'm decidedly comfortable with, one that brings a whole lot to the Democratic ticket -- even beyond the foreign policy credibility that the media is so overwhelmingly focusing on -- one that reinforces the important message of the Democrats being in touch on the economy while John McCain, George W. Bush, and the Republican Party are completely out of touch.
Update [2008-8-23 3:24:35 by Jonathan Singer]: Just to sketch out in greater detail what I wrote above, if you look through Biden's financials, he really is not a super wealthy man (these numbers from 2007, not 2008).Earned income: $193,900.
Honoraria (all donated to charity): $800.
Major assets: Bank accounts and life insurance policies, $22,008-$155,000.
Major sources of unearned income: Life insurance dividends, $1,001-$2,500.
Major liabilities: Loan against life insurance policies, $15,001-$50,000; lines of credit, $114,002-$300,000; credit union note, $10,001-$15,000.
I didn't see it, but I'm told that CNN reported tonight that Biden is actually the least wealthy member of the United States Senate. Talk about a contrast with a Republican ticket already worth upwards of $100 million -- and perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars if Mitt Romney is McCain's veep pick.
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