Biden on Obama

Joseph Biden, of whom I have a great deal of respect, opened up in the most recent edition of Newsweek. He answered some tough questions about his past personal struggles; no doubt this guy is a fighter. But the most interesting part of the Newsweek interview came when the Delaware Senator was asked about Illinois Senator and fellow presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Biden was asked if he saw a similarity between his 1988 bid for the White House, and Obama's campaign today:

"There are definitely similarities. One thing is, I’m waging the same campaign today, but it’s a lot harder to wage it when you are over 60 than when you are in your mid-40s. You are granted, when you’re young, an enthusiasm. You’re granted a sense of idealism, but you are also perceived as not being quite ready. And he suffers from that perception, as I did. I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. It’s awful hard, with only a little bit of experience to have a clear sense of what you would do on the most critical issues facing us today: what to do about promoting America’s place in the world. It is not something that lends itself to—the trite phrase is—it’s not something that lends itself to on-the-job training. You have to have a clear notion of what you want to do. When power is handed off from George Bush to the next president, the next president will be left with virtually no margin for error."

I do wish Biden would get more media coverage as this guy is one of the best candidates in the race. I hate to pick on Obama twice in one day, trust me it wasn't purposeful, but Biden is absolutely correct. People are for some reason willing to make an even exchange: experience for change. People see Obama as the change candidate and throw his lack of experience out the window. But why can't change and experience co-exist? I think we can all agree any democratic president would be a drastic change from the Bush-Cheney dynasty. With only two years in the Congress, is Obama ready? This guy has a lot left to learn, but I do believe that Obama, one day, will be the first African-American President. I just hope it happens when he is ready to take on the responsibility of being president. And it takes a lot more than just two years in the Senate to be ready for a job as big as being the President of the United States.