Various news outlets are reporting that Barack Obama has selected Joe Biden as his running mate. I hope they're wrong.
It's not that I don't like Biden. He seems like an intelligent man who's been right about foreign affairs a lot more often than your average politician. He's also a good speaker and to the extent you want a running mate to be an "attack dog," he can probably do that with great gusto and more class than most.
No, I hope it's not Biden for two reasons. One is that an awful lot of people signed up for the infamous Obama text message announcement on the belief that they'd be the first to know. That message doesn't seem to have gone out…so if it's Biden, then Obama is letting all those people down. That may sound petty but a lot of elections turn on petty matters.
I also hope it's not Biden because I enjoy it so much when the press gets something like this wrong. It reminds us that they're quite fallible. They get a lot of little things wrong but we forget that and need the big "misses" to remind us.
Also, I still think Biden looks too much like McLean Stevenson. But apart from all that, he's probably a good choice. We can now look forward this weekend to all the articles and speeches from Republicans and right-wingers explaining how Biden is the worst possible choice and how Obama might as well concede now. Of course, they'd say that about whoever was picked, just as the Democrats will say that about McCain's selection.