Take me to your leader
Obama announced his pick for the VP, Joe Biden, yesterday.
It's a safe pick, far safer than what I was hoping for or expecting from Obama. Another old white guy? I was hoping for someone to be excited about, someone like Bill Richardson. Richardson would have given Obama the same experience boost Biden does, plus he has even more polished foreign policy credentials AND of course he appeals to the Latino vote which has, until relatively recently, quietly become the second largest group next to white people in the United States.
A woman would have been a smart pick, too. Not Hillary, of course. But Hillary supporters who are threatening to abandon the Democratic party would have reason to give Obama a second look. The first "black" President (Pam always points out that he won't be the first black President - he'll be the first biracial president) and the first female Vice President would be something to get excited about.
But he picked Biden, a guy who famously called Obama clean and articulate. Obama's exciting enough on his own, I suppose, but it's disheartening to think that he felt he couldn't win the White House with an edgier running mate. Henry Clay, a similarly eloquent man who ran (and lost) for President five times said, "I'd rather be right than be President." Maybe Obama doesn't share Clay's preference.
But I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately. Last weekend I started my administrative credential program at Loyola Marymount University. The program is called the Institute of School Leadership and Administration and I'm in the Charter School Leadership Academy. I hope it lives up to the impressiveness of its name.
We're only a week and half into the school year and already there's plenty of political drama going on at school, something I thought we might have left behind us with the departure of our former principal. As one of the lead teachers, and as the most veteran teacher, I'm going to have to say what I feel I should say, and I'm anticipating some fireworks.
I've spent the last few minutes looking up the etymology of the word "lead," and it's related variously to words that mean "to show the way," "to travel," and "to suffer." I think that about covers it.
posted by prez @ 6:48 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
I agree Richardson would have been a better choice except that Hillary supporters would have really thrown a fit (remember the whole "Judas" thing?). Biden's a solid choice: Catholic, PA native, older white male (that will make some more comfortable), and a very interesting history. Plus, he's tough and will register with a lot of people (I've lived in both TX and VA, so I would know!). He will be an asset.
Q: What did the martian say to the gas pump?
A: Get your finger out of your ear and take me to your leader!
Had I been Henry Clay's campaign manager, I would have told him it can be wise to give up a battle to win the war. In his "rightness" he doesn't seem to have accomplished much.
Jonah Goldberg, a columnist for the LA Times, wrote "one can only hope that the perpetual motion machine that is Biden's mouth will, like a million monkeys banging on typewriters, eventually stumble on a plausible explanation for why Obama picked Biden, of all people." "Obama picked a Democrat who was first elected to the U.S. Senate when Obama was 12 years old and Richard Nixon was still popular." He further writes that "Biden, with his 'unparalleled foreign policy experience' in the words of an Obama senior advisor, supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq on the exact same grounds that Clinton did."
Two comments:
1. What do you mean by "Not Hillary, of course?"
2. One lesson I learned from my dog is that humans are the only animal that will follow a weak leader.
By "not HIllary, of course" I mean that due to all the thins she said about Obama during the campaign, all the criticisms she leveled at him, there's no way he could have picked her. Plus, who would want Bill hanging around the White House?
I truly hate each and every "thin" she says. I enjoy most of the fats, though.
Yes, Hillary calling Obama "too thin" really did get to me.
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