Is Biden the new Cheney?

Is Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, newly selected as Democrat Barack Obama's running mate, playing the same role as Cheney did eight years ago?

The similarity -- veteran serving as the No. 2 behind the novice -- is drawing some notice. So are the differences.

Writes Michael Goodwin in the New York Daily News:

By picking Joe Biden as his running mate, Barack Obama has taken a page out of George Bush's 2000 campaign and picked a grownup who knows a thing or two about the adult world. Of course, the Cheney influence hasn't always worked out too well, so here's hoping Biden doesn't become another Darth Vader!

Andrew Sullivan offers this assessment in his Daily Dish:

No vice president in American history has done as much damage to national security, constitutional integrity and the moral standing of the United States as Dick Cheney. Biden has aspects of the Cheney pick -- he's older, more seasoned and more adept at foreign policy than Obama. But no one imagines that Obama would delegate -- and all but abdicate -- critical decisions to Biden the way Bush has to Cheney.

Finally, Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News reports that White House political guru Karl Rove criticized the Biden pick on Fox News this morning, saying that his weighty resume only reminds voters how thin Obama's is.

But Karl found himself in deep water when a Fox News interviewer asked: Wasn't Dick Cheney picked to be George W. Bush's veep to balance the Texas governor's lack of experience? Did Cheney boost the ticket or just remind people of Bush's inexperience? Totally different, said Rove. Totally different.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Tannen Maury / EPA

Comments

[FD]

Biden wrote the checks for Obama. He invented the five year budgets and doubled and tripled the budgets. Every program the President came out with Congress increased. Biden is just the excuse for 100s of billions in foreign aid that we get nothing in return for; Biden would be smart to cut back on the waste. Of course we have to wait five more years to stop the programs.

This is Obama covering his foreign policy tracks, which was check writing. Biden should really be President.

[WIlly Brown]

Obama has secured a victory for John McCain. It was only a matter of time when the democrats would screw up the election again. He'd have been better off picking Karl Rove.

[Agnie]

Purely in terms of foreign policy, Biden does add value to the Democratic ticket. But Joe Biden and Barack Obama (and McCain) should should keep in mind Russia's Achilles Heel as they prepare to deal with Putin and Medvedev: http://oilandglory.com/2008/08/russias-achilles-heel.html