A Good Choice

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Editorial / Periscope - Niall O'Dowd

A Good Choice

August 28, 2008

Editorial

THE selection of Senator Joe Biden as running mate for Senator Barack Obama is a smart choice by the Democratic presidential candidate. Biden helps on several fronts. His Irish Catholic background helps Obama with the blue-collar ethnic vote, which is a major problem for the Democratic challenger.

It also helps him with Irish American activists who came out strongly for Senator Hillary Clinton. Biden has a history with our community which is positive on issues such as Northern Ireland and immigration reform. He is certainly a friendly face for a community that was feeling somewhat neglected by the Obama campaign, especially on the issue of his non-attendance at the Irish presidential forum.

Obama is also helped by Biden’s Pennsylvania roots. His upbringing in Scranton makes him the kind of local figure in a key state which will help Obama in November.

Simply put, Obama cannot win the election without winning Pennsylvania. Biden will also help in major Catholic voter states such as Ohio and Florida.

Biden’s experience in foreign affairs will also be a great asset to Obama. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Biden has extensive experience in dealing with world problems and has always come across as a multi-lateralist, ready and willing to work with other countries to solve problems rather than have America go it alone.

As an inexperienced senator Obama desperately needs an seasoned voice on his team when it comes to foreign affairs. Biden fits the bill perfectly and covers over a dangerous weakness on the Obama resume.

Irish Americans will be happy to see one of their own on the ticket on the Democratic side, especially as Obama had given little sense that he was reaching out to the white ethnic Catholic vote. Yet there is little doubt that that vote is absolutely critical in key states he must win.

Biden made his Irish blue-collar roots an immediate selling point in his acceptance speech after Obama nominated him. It is easy to see why.

Biden is not just an Irish American in name only. He has a long history of working on issues of interest to Irish Americans and has been active in Irish affairs for three decades.

His mother’s family, the Finnegans, emigrated from Mayo during the Irish Famine. His father’s family appears to be of French Huguenot stock, many of whom lived in Ireland.

Even his choice of Wolfe Tone as his political hero makes him unusual in American politics. His knowledge of what Tone represented — i.e., the bringing together of Catholic Protestant and Dissenter in Ireland before the failed 1798 Rising — sends an important message about his educated sense of Irish history and his beliefs about that country’s political future.

Biden’s opposition in the eighties to the new extradition treaty between Britain and the U.S. which was created to ensure the extradition of Irish suspects to Britain is also noteworthy. He said at the time that the “unwillingness to acknowledge the deprivation of the courts, the Diplock courts, no jury trials” made him vote and campaign against it.

There is no doubt that Biden is a good choice for Irish America and that Obama has picked wisely. Now it will be interesting to see who the McCain camp come up with.

In such a tight race — the candidates were even at 47% each in the latest CNN poll — the selection of vice president could easily be a tipping point.

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