ELECTION 08: Drum roll please, for Senator Joe Biden!

The cat is finally out of the hat – Joe Biden, the 65-year-old senator for Delaware, is Obama’s vice-presidential choice. Biden promises to be an entertaining candidate, a man with no shortage of meandering, occasionally dangerous opinions in response to the simplest of questions. He ran for President in 1988 – then younger than Obama is now – with an emphasis on experience and not learning on the job in the White House; the campaign was damaged by accusations that he lifted from a speech written by British Labour chief Neil Kinnock, possibly unfairly – it’s a charge which Obama has also been accused of, but didn’t do him nearly as much harm.

Crucially, he has 36 years in the senate, a lot of foreign policy experience and is a Catholic – from good Irish stock, no less – which will surely help quiet the persistent digital Muslimisation of Barack Obama. On the tricky side, he is very much a Washington insider. Will answering the call for experience undermine the movement for ‘change’?

Time will tell, but just be thankful the announcement is out – now the Republicans can unclench and unleash their amusing attacks, and the media can hammer full throttle into the convention coverage after all that VP wheelspinning. The live blogging army should be of particular interest on this campaign.

See the News Pointers (right hand side, down a bit) for more stories on Biden.

ELECTION 08: Pumas plan to pounce, but may find themselves outnumbered

The anti-Obama, pro-Hillary group PUMA (Party Unity My Ass, People United Means Action) are keen for their favourite ex-candidate to be entered in the nominations at the looming Democratic National Convention, which she will be. Clinton’s delegates would form a sizeable proportion of the hall were not Obama’s big moment being decamped from the Pepsi Center to the 76,125-capacity Mile High Stadium, so this is a not inconsiderable development – especially when you consider her convincing campaigning for Obama, if not her husband’s occasionally passive stance, and his praising of John McCain’s energy plan. The former President will be speaking at the convention too; this will be worth watching.

According to CNN, the PUMAs have purchased space at the Convention and plans a protest. How will it all play out? The desired integration, or fireworks?

More likely the former, one suspects. But with Obama reeling from McCain attacks and a perceived relative weakness over Georgia that has surely contributed to his recent poll slide, there’s a rocky road ahead. Especially as, for a man who promised to redefine politics, he’s running negative ads (albeit at swing state level), just like the other guy. This isn’t about race, it’s the Republican machine at work. John Kerry Mk2, if Obama isn’t careful.

(An out-there suggestion: are PUMAs an inside job, Swiftboat equivalents for 08?)

As ever, it’s questions, questions, question. Always remember, it’s not over til November.

ELECTION 08: Obama hip hops to Wednesday acceptance

Ping! It almost looked like oneupmanship. The next day from Hillary’s invitation to dinner (one imagines it would just be you, her and several hundred others – with an intimate Q&A session at the end), the flamboyant senator for Illinois was inviting us backstage to the 76,125 strong shindig that will see him lose his ‘presumptive’.

This is the moment the 46-year-old takes to the stage, raises his sword (dodgy hip allowing) and says: ‘I am the nominee.’ And good luck to him. But what was this? “Tomorrow is the financial reporting deadline for July”, it noted, eager to point out that funds for the month should hopefully exceed those raised by John McCain; before telling us that we must donate before attending. Although the following disclaimer stated: “If you do not wish to make a donation, you can still be selected to join Barack at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Learn more here.”

Those that wish to learn more are directed toward a donation page, here. Hmm. Doubtless there’s a get-around in there somewhere, but on the face of it, this doesn’t seem quite like cricket.

The Democratic National Convention will take place, for the most, at the Pepsi Center in Denver – August 25 to 27 will be spent lounging about at the 20,000-odd seater venue also known as ‘The Can’, with Hillary Clinton’s speech falling in the middle on the Tuesday (a painful echo of the Tuesday that was not so Super?). Then, the convention decamps over the road the home of gridiron grunters the Denver Broncos, the 76,125-capacity Mile High Stadium, where Mr Obama gives his speech. Celebrity? No…

Read Obama’s address to the 2004 convention here.
See how McCain Nation, the Republican hopeful’s grassroots networking site, is faring here.