Barack Obama: Supreme Court pick coming soon - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

President Barack Obama told C-SPAN on Friday that he’s “going to have an announcement soon” on his pick for the Supreme Court, and said he is looking for “not just ivory tower learning.”

“I want somebody who has the intellectual fire power, but also a little bit of a common touch and has a practical sense of how the world,” Obama told C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully.

Obama repeated his hope that Congress will hold hearings in July so that they can be completed before Congress breaks for the summer.“One of the things I would prefer not to see happen is that these confirmation hearings drag on and somebody has to hit the ground running and then take their seat in October without having the time to wrap their mind around the fact that they are going to be a Supreme Court Justice,” he said. “I'd like to given them a little bit of lead time so that they can get prepared.”

Barack Obama: Supreme Court pick coming soon - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

Biden Brings Experience

So Senator Biden is the pick; good choice. As mentioned in previous posts during the NH primaries Senator Biden and Senator McCain were the only two candidates to talk about Iraq in detail. They both deserve credit for that. Obviously this is why Biden was picked. Senator Obama needs some help on foreign policy, which he hope he can get from Biden. An interesting wrinkle to this pick is that Senator Biden has said numerous times that Senator Obama is not prepared / not qualified. In fact at his event in New Hampshire at the end of his talk he said (paraphrased), 'If you decide not to vote for me, I hope you choose some one with experience. These are difficult times and we need someone who knows what they're doing.'

I agree. His statement was a pretty clear hat tip to Senator Clinton, who once again got snubbed by the Obama camp by not being vetted, and apparently did not even receiving a courtesy phone call. However, the statement holds just as well for Obama v. McCain. McCain doesn't need a VP who will help him when tested on foreign policy. Don't believe me just listen to Senator Biden...

Will Biden Help Obama With His Homework?

McCain Purpose

David Brooks on Obama

David Brook's excellent article The Two Obama's does an excellent job laying out how Senator Obama talks reform and inspiration, but plays old school politics as well as anyone out there...

"God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson..."

"...But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes..."

Brooks goes on to explain Obama's history of old school politics. That he is smart and calculating, and has laid out a path for himself that any old-school Chigago politician would be proud of...

"...Back when he was in the Illinois State Senate, Dr. Barack could have taken positions on politically uncomfortable issues. But Fast Eddie Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times. From time to time, he threw his voting power under the truck.

Dr. Barack said he could no more disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than disown his own grandmother. Then the political costs of Rev. Wright escalated and Fast Eddie Obama threw Wright under the truck.

Dr. Barack could have been a workhorse senator. But primary candidates don’t do tough votes, so Fast Eddie Obama threw the workhorse duties under the truck.

Dr. Barack could have changed the way presidential campaigning works. John McCain offered to have a series of extended town-hall meetings around the country. But favored candidates don’t go in for unscripted free-range conversations. Fast Eddie Obama threw the new-politics mantra under the truck.

And then on Thursday, Fast Eddie Obama had his finest hour. Barack Obama has worked on political reform more than any other issue. He aspires to be to political reform what Bono is to fighting disease in Africa. He’s spent much of his career talking about how much he believes in public financing. In January 2007, he told Larry King that the public-financing system works. In February 2007, he challenged Republicans to limit their spending and vowed to do so along with them if he were the nominee. In February 2008, he said he would aggressively pursue spending limits. He answered a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire by reminding everyone that he has been a longtime advocate of the public-financing system.

Full David Brook's article The Two Obama's

Obama Double Talk Video

This video created by a Clinton supporter chronicles several instances where Senator Obama and his campaign have made conflicting statements.

Obama Advisor Susan Rice's Major Historical/Foreign Policy Error

Unfortunately, Susan Rice's statement regarding the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting, "Thank God he did because if he hadn't we would have not been able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis" is completely false. In fact historians agree that this meeting fueled the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Weekly Standand, in detailing the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting, quotes NYT columnist James Reston who interviewed President Kennedy right after his meeting with Khrushchev,

"Reston reported that Kennedy said just enough for Reston to conclude that Khrushchev "had studied the events of the Bay of Pigs" and that he had "decided that he was dealing with an inexperienced young leader who could be intimidated and blackmailed." Kennedy said to Reston that Khrushchev had "just beat [the] hell out of me" and that he had presented Kennedy with a terrible problem: "If he thinks I'm inexperienced and have no guts, until we remove those ideas we won't get anywhere with him. So we have to act."

Kennedy responded to the meeting with a congressional request for a dramatic increase in defense spending, and a significant increase in the size of the military. Khrushchev responded to Kennedy's actions with above ground nuclear testing and erecting the Berlin Wall. The tensions between the US and Soviet Union dramatically increased due to the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting; the Cuban Missile Crisis followed.

Susan Rice's statement is simply false. There is no historical record of the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting being at all helpful in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis and actually the exact opposite true that an inexperienced leader was bullied into an arms race.

'Obama Advisor Susan Rice's Major Historical/Foreign Policy Error' first published at Purple People Vote

Obama Independents Links

New sites supporting Senator McCain are appearing regularly. Here are a few that are worth a look.

McCain Independents
Bush McCain
Battleground States 08
Wiki Obama
Local Republicans
Obama Independents
Who Do I Vote For?
McCain Online Volunteer
Rabid Blue Dog Democrat
New Hampshire 4 McCain
McCain Democrats
Iraqi 4 McCain
Politico Mafioso - McCain Arizona
Red State Blue
McCain Jewish Vote
Vietnam Veterans for McCain

Love America Enough