A text message arrived at my phone this morning announced that Democratic Senator Barack Obama had selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. I looked at it, said, "No surprise there," and went back to sleep.
After all, there isn’t much to Biden that the public doesn’t already know. He’s a career Senator with more than 30-year history of being a "Congress critter." Biden is not only a part of the political establishment, he’s a senior member of it!
In fact, Biden has only spent four years working in the private sector after graduating from college.
As our acting Executive Director said, Biden’s pick was "predictable and typical."
Biden is a bit of a loose cannon that should make this election season a little more interesting. He’s notorious for being a narcissistic windbag, making testy, off-the-cuff comments such as, "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent," or, when he said in response to a question about what type of grades he received in law school, "I think I have a much higher IQ than you do."
Obama, who has constantly been under the microscope for elitist-sounding comments, has picked for his V.P. a man that also can be criticized for the same.
But what about his voting record? Though being mostly middle-of-the-road, Biden’s record in Congress displays a track record of big spending and big government.
The following are just a few of the things I found:
- Voted against an amendment that would prohibit the use taxpayer money for abortion.
- Voted for the economic stimulus plan that costs taxpayers billions.
- Voted to prevent drilling in ANWR.
- Voted against eliminating the "Death Tax."
- Voted to increase the minimum wage.
- Voted for McCain-Feingold.
- Voted against a moratorium on earmarks.
- Voted for hate crime legislation.
- Voted for No Child Left Behind.
- Voted to spend $48 billion overseas to fight diseases in foreign countries.
- Voted against protecting firearm manufacturers from lawsuits.
- Voted for using federal funds for anti-gun activities.
- Voted against making English the official language of the United States.
- Voted against limiting taxpayer subsidies to AMTRAK.
- Voted for punishing states that did not comply with motorcycle helmet laws.
Oh well…I guess when Obama was talking about change, he meant it would come from a career Senator.
