joe biden vice president under barack obama

#Joe biden vice president under barack obama tv

Insiders recall that 20 names were on the initial “list,” but no one has given a comprehensive list of names. Obama’s veep-selection process, begun in June of 2008 after he nailed down the nomination, and headed up by Jim Johnson (who soon gave way to Jim Hamilton), Eric Holder, and Caroline Kennedy, was very secretive. There’s actually no infallible way to know. So inevitably, those who still love Obama but increasingly mistrust Biden have to refresh their memories on a more recent matter: Why did Barack Obama pick Joe Biden as his running mate in the first place? It's that Obama (and the whole party!) should've known better at the time.- Josh Barro June 20, 2019 It's that Biden had an ideologically bad, racist and sexist record, public and knowable to everyone in 2008. Remember, the claim is not Biden got put on the ticket and turned out to not be a very good VP. Before he was known as a grabber and a hugger, Joe Biden was most definitely known as a back-slapper.Īnd so, as Democratic rivals and media types solemnly discuss the relevance of these distant events, the question has to be asked: Do we know much of anything now that we didn’t know in 2008 when he became vice-presidential nominee? My colleague Josh Barro is even more pointed about it: And his chummy relationship with the the racist grandees of the Senate Judiciary Committee was evident for all to see as he climbed the seniority ladder over the years.

#Joe biden vice president under barack obama tv

The 1994 Crime Bill that was used against Hillary Clinton by both Democratic and Republican critics in 2016 was universally understood to be a Joe Biden product I personally sat spellbound in front of a TV back then and watched him indefatigably promote it on C-SPAN. The whole world watched his erratic stewardship of the Clarence Thomas hearings and his associated dubious treatment of Anita Hill. His early Senate years as an anti-busing advocate were well-known. His self-indulgence in speaking of the events of bygone decades is entirely familiar to anyone who’s spent a lot of time around garrulous seventy-somethings.īut the reminiscences and actual events of the past that keep getting Biden into hot water are not, by and large, sudden revelations of previously unknown aspects of his political career. It has been helped along, of course, by Biden’s own powerful taste for nostalgia, which extends far beyond his obvious interest in reminding Democrats of the good old days before the Bad Man was elected president. Joe Biden in his first appearance with Barack Obama after being unveiled as his 2008 running-mate.Īs the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination contest gets more serious, the long, long, long career of Joe Biden keeps getting negative attention that will likely continue or even intensify so long as he is the perceived front-runner.