We Need to Look Very Closely at Biden
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, BidenI can’t imagine a more obvious vice presidential choice for Barack Obama than Joe Biden. In fact, the choice was so obvious, I predicted it. In January. And I’m not a brilliant prognosticator.
Obama possesses weaknesses that are very similar to George Bush’s weaknesses in 2000. Like the Bush of eight years ago, Obama is considered affable and politically promising but lacks significant hands-on experience. Bush assuaged people’s worries about his inexperience by going with an old Washington insider. That worked. Makes sense why Obama, faced with a similar dilemma, would make a similar choice.
As it turned out, Dick Cheney was much more than window dressing. He has played a significant policy role in the Bush administration. So significant, in fact, that it’s very easy to imagine Bush’s presidency having been quite different if, say, Colin Powell were the VP. Vice presidents aren’t usually that significant. Ronald Reagan still would have been Reagan without George H. W. Bush. Bill Clinton would still have been Clinton without Al Gore. But Cheney has, in many ways, made Bush the president he is.
Will Biden have as much influence on Obama? We don’t know. But we do know we should look into Biden’s leadership style, political affiliations and negative qualities far more closely than we looked into Cheney back in 2000. Biden may just be an Obama prop. But I, for one, want this guy closely analyzed. My instinct is to like the pick. But if Biden is going to be a major player in an Obama administration, we can’t assume we already know everything we need to know. Look how that turned out last time.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Biden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Another flaw in your comparision is that Bush did not run on the campaign of “change” villifying Washington insiders to win the primary, while Barack has done just that. It paints him into a pretty little corner that Bush didn’t face.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Also, (and maybe this is partisan blinders), Bush has always been incurious, uninvolved, and seems happy to be a figurehead. Obama on the other hand is intelligent and involved. He may be a new figure, but he’s no lightweight.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
@ Jay - Actually, Bush totally ran on a change message. In 1999-2000, He talked constantly about “restoring honor and integrity” to the oval office and to Washington in general. He talked about “compassionate conservatism” and that since he was an “outsider” (ha!) he would be an example “real” bipartisanship. He railed against the institutions and machinations of big government and bureaucracy (just not against the lobbyists or the monied interests)
You’re absolutely right about Barack being in a corner that Bush wasn’t. I personally think his “blank canvas” was the best thing he had going for him (I know so many criticize that as his weakness) The Biden pick paints him into even more of a corner, IMO.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
“…if Biden is going to be a major player in an Obama administration, we can’t assume we already know everything we need to know. Look how that turned out last time. - ASC
There is a big difference. As MDGoerge points out, GWB is completely devoid of intellectual curiosity. That , combined with his hands-off, “delegate everything”, “big picture” management style made his decisions easy to manipulate by a VP who obsessively controlled all information flow into the oval office.
Obama pays attention to detail and prefers to think deeply about both the issues and the political consequences of decisions. As president, he will (unlike Bush) be immune to manipulation. However, he is likely to suffer from the “analysis paralysis” that afflicts many academics, a la Jimmy Carter.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I got here by googling to research Joe Biden’s management style. Seems appropriate to share my analysis of the management styles of the presidential nominees: I have done a lot of research on the management styles of the two presidential candidates. Before retirement I managed technical teams responsible for trouble-shooting critical 7/24 online financial systems - I consider this crisis management- project management and problem management in compressed time. When I first started researching McCain’s management style, I identified with him as a crisis management type. At that point I had a problem because good crisis managers tend to be instant gratification types. Although I can do a good job of managing a development project, over the long haul I get bored and lose effectiveness. One of the keys to good management is putting the right people in the right places. It became apparent to me that McCain has a problem doing this in that he turned over his management and staff twice - once when his primary campaign was in serious financial trouble and then when he switched to the Rove-acolyte team. A good crisis manager needs to understand process inside out in order to cut the quickest path to resolution. The process used by John McCain to select Palin as VP nominee shows a total lack of process. Also required of crisis management is the ability to rapidly consider and evaluate new methods and ideas - you are generally confronting stuff you haven’t seen before, because you have fixed the stuff you have seen. I have seen no new campaign strategies or ideas incorporated in McCain’s campaign. I no longer believe he is a crisis style manager, I now see him as a loose-canon style manager. I have also researched Obama’s management style and find it solid (note: it is much easier to research than McCains, just google). One of the things I like best about Obama’s style, which is rare to find, is that he empowers people - his staff, his advisors, and his grass roots supporters. At several points in my career I worked for GE. One of the keys to Jack Welch’s success was the culture of empowerment and open communications he created - the management training I got at GE was worth every bit as much as my degree. Imagine where we could take this country with an empowered citizenry.