If Barack Obama is any kind of sport, he’ll announce at his big
rally in Springfield, Ill., this afternoon that he picked Joe Biden
because he’s “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
When Biden said that about Obama, it overshadowed the first few days of
Biden’s presidential run as he tried to explain the implied slur. By
quoting Biden, Obama might get a laugh, as well as show the two are
close enough that they can kid about it now.

The reference would
also help defuse a big question everyone has about Biden: Can he keep
the gaffes in check? One way to defuse a gaffe, of course, is to
dismiss it as irrelevant. If it doesn’t bother me, Obama would be
saying, it shouldn’t bother anyone else.

Obama has made a serious
pick. He didn’t choose his Delaware colleague because Biden would
generate buzz, and Biden brings no Electoral College benefit. Delaware
is a blue state, and being born in the swing state of Pennsylvania
doesn’t really count. Obama picked Biden because, as chairman of the
foreign relations committee and former chairman of the judiciary
committee, he has extensive experience.

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