Sunday, July 08, 2012

Who the H*ll Is Joe Biden?


I must admit that while I felt that I had been educated enough to monitor American politics reasonably well in recent months, I was actually one of those who got so surprised when Democratic Party presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama had announced Senator Joe Biden of Delaware to be his running mate come November —-not Hillary Clinton as I expected he would be picking or at least John Edwards (if only he wasn’t blotched by an admitted affair.)



So Senator Joe Biden becomes the man of the hour, being set into the middle of the race despite being inconspicuous for most of the much-ballyhooed Obama-Clinton race for the Democratic Party nomination, one that had ended with a little bitter taste in the mouth. He is suddenly into the thick of things like having a bye in Wimbledon or a wild card slot in major league baseball.



Senator Biden is as white as any American could possibly be and I couldn’t help but immediately make out of this as the main quality that had gained him Sen. Obama’s nod. You know, to put a compromise to his being the first-ever African-American presidential nominee, where despite being so fancied for that, is sadly his greatest disadvantage. I felt now, that the contrast might be too obvious for comfort and turn away blue collar votes (where he is seen to be so weak at) instead of gaining them, losing further votes of middle-of-the-road white American workers that had supported Sen. Clinton’s almost successful run, and the vote that is considered to be as prevalent as the white vote itself.



Accordingly, it was Sen. Joe Biden’s competence on foreign policy matters that had earned him the Democrat’s vice-presidential nomination, a field where Sen. Obama is seen to be wanting. In this age of global warming, rising oil prices in the world market, rigid WTO negotiations, and spurts of conflicts in central Europe and the Iraq tension still permeating, foreign affairs would be an immense concern for the next president of America.



And in an ever-expanding global community, where borders disappear from one place and reappear in another, where regionalism is the new game that nations play, foreign policy or foreign affairs should become all the more essential as a national interest issue, now more than ever, and not only for America, but to every state or country there is.

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