Get ready for 4 years of John McCain ...

... since Obama picked Joe Blowhard Biden for his running mate.

Now, I'm no fan of Barrack Obama. I think he'd be a terrible president and would profoundly harm America. (Of course, I have the same opinion of McCain, whose administration would basically be The George W. Bush Show -- episode 3.) That being said, as a long-time political observer I at least like to see politicians act like they know what they're doing. Obama clearly doesn't, at least here.

What's one of the biggest knocks on Obama? His lack of experience. What does picking Biden emphasize? Obama's lack of experience.

Great.

All the coverage will be on how Biden shores up Obama's major weak spot -- constantly reminding everyone of Obama's major weak spot. For an example of this, look no further than the article linked above. The lead sentence of the article's third paragraph is, "The choice of Biden, 65, is aimed at addressing questions about Obama's inexperience on international affairs, his biggest vulnerability against McCain." Yeah, that's definitely what you want people focusing on.

It's basically conceding the argument to his critics. It's equivalent to him saying, "You know, I hear that you guys say I'm inexperienced and not ready to be president. Hey, I think you're right. So I chose this older guy here who'll help me out when I have questions because I'm so inexperienced." If I was in McCain's camp, I'd be jumping all over this major gaffe with backhanded compliments like, "We applaud Senator Obama for choosing Senator Biden, as it will help him compensate for his clear lack of foreign policy experience, a weakness Senator McCain doesn't share." Or something like that.

I mean, think back to 1992. Back then so many people were counseling Clinton to choose an old hand like Dick Gephardt as his running mate to bring experience and gravitas to the ticket. The reigning wisdom was that Clinton needed someone older than him because he was so young and people would be suspicious of his lack of experience. What did Clinton do, masterful politician that he was? He flipped the script by choosing Al Gore, another young guy (and another Southerner at that -- so much for geographical balance), as his running mate and turning his perceived liability (youth and lack of national experience) into an asset (dynamism and new ideas). All of a sudden the campaign narrative was about how these two dynamic and energetic Democrats were running against an old President with outmoded ideas.

Obama had a chance to do that -- maybe an even better chance, since McCain's so old and Obama's been emphasizing the importance of "judgment" over "experience" since his primary with Hillary Clinton. Why not just continue that line and force McCain to fight on that turf, where he'd have to defend his deep connections with Bush's policies? That would at least remind everyone that McCain been in lockstep with the Bushies for a long time now. It would remind everyone of McCain's weaknesses, and could have potentially flipped the script on McCain like Clinton flipped the script on George H.W. Bush. Now? All everyone will be talking about is how Obama made a good defensive move, reminding everyone of how inexperienced Obama is in the first place.

Of course, this criticism is apart from the glaring weaknesses with Biden himself: his pedantic blowhard personality and his penchant for saying whatever the hell crosses his mind, for example. (Think John Kerry with more charisma and a temper.) There's a reason he never registered above single digits as a presidential candidate, folks. I mean, didn't the people in charge of vetting candidates watch the Roberts or Alito confirmation hearings, for crying out loud? Just look at Biden pontificate endlessly there. This is the man you want helping out a candidate who people are suspicious is too aloof and not in touch with the common man?

I guess there's a bright side, though: at least the pedantic blowhard isn't headlining the Democratic ticket this time.

Just a dumb Pavlovian response from what's actually been a fairly well-run campaign so far.