It's Biden!

In case anybody hasn't seen (and if that's the case, then you need to get out more), Obama will apparently name Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) later today (link here). In my mind this is a good pick, but, as with all people, it's a two-sided coin.

Pros:

• Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972 (at the age of 29), which brings a lot of experience to counter McCain's argument that Obama is naive and unexperienced.
  
• He is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which counters the argument that the Obama campaign lacks foreign policy knowledge and depth.
• Born into a working-class Catholic family, Biden has always stayed true to his blue-collar roots, and has constantly been ranked one of the poorest senators (and yes, he only has one house).
  
• In 1972, shortly after he was elected to the Senate, his wife and infant daughter died in a car crash; to ensure that he would always stay close with his family, Biden made it a practice to commute from Washington, DC to his house in Wilmington, DE every night, a tradition that he still continues.
• Biden is a quick wit, and will be a formidable attack dog, both in the debates and on the campaign trail.

Cons:

• He tends to run his mouth, leading to boring, drawn-out answers to questions that could be answered in a sentence or two.
• Similarly, Biden has committed a series of high-profile gaffes in his career, including: accidentally plagiarizing UK Labour leader Neil Kinnock during his first presidential run in 1988; saying, on the topic of Indian-American relations, "You cannot go to a 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian Accent;" and, on Obama's run for the Presidency, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that's a storybook, man."
• He doesn't add much geographically, nor does he reinforce the "change" image that the Obama campaign has worked so hard to perfect.
• He made some comments about Obama's lack of experience, while he was waging his own campaign for the Democratic nomination last year, that the Republicans have already started to use against him, such as "I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

So those are all the pros and cons I can think of (granted it's 3am and I am quite tired). Later today Obama will formally introduce Biden at a rally at 1pm EST in Springfield, IL, where Obama launched his campaign a year and a half ago. Be sure to watch, it should be highly interesting.