Vice Presidents

As all the media hype dies down and focuses more on weather than politics, I think it'd be good to stop for a second and reflect on both of the candidates' VP picks - Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. The VP pick is one of the first important decisions a candidate makes, and it reflects greatly on their judgment whom they pick and why they pick them. While both of them seemingly had legitimate reasons for picking their running mates, there are definitely some issues with both of them that could end up hurting their candidacy, especially with the younger population.

Joe Biden is largely a good choice for Obama. His political resume is exactly what the ticket needs to reassure democrats and swing independents. He has had experience in Washington for over 30 years, had dealt with countless foreign leaders, and is a very white, middle-class man. This balances Obama's weaknesses almost exactly, adding the experience that he is constantly accused of lacking by the McCain campaign. Joe is a family man, down-to-earth, and doesn't even live in Washington. He takes the same Amtrak to and from work every day, a trip totaling almost 4 hours. Obama has spun this to fit his campaign's message, saying that the fact that he doesn't live in Washington means that he hasn't been shaped by the "same old politics," and instead has shaped those politics himself. Looking a little deeper into his policies, however, reveals some issues that some of Obama's strongest supporters might have with him.

These issues have to do with copyright, DRM, net neutrality, and the big content producers. A recent CNET article detailed his voting record on these important issues, and it could be seen as a very bad thing by most web-age young adults - one of Obama's largest and most dedicated demographics. Biden is "a staunch ally of Hollywood and their efforts to expand copyright law." Among others, he voted to make it a felony to trick devices into playing unauthorized music, and has also sponsored an RIAA backed bill aimed at making it harder to record songs from online radio stations. In addition, he hasn't been nearly as vocal about the need for enforced net neutrality as Barack Obama has. It is one of Obama's official policies, but Biden has mostly said that no preemptive laws were necessary. It seems to me that although Biden is a good choice in the foreign policy and experience departments, he might need to rethink his policies on these other important issues if he wants to keep the votes of countless young people.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, seems to be nothing but a terrible choice for John McCain. It was completely obvious from the start that he only picked her due to her gender, and the barrage of negative coverage she has been receiving has been unrelenting. She has little to no experience on the national stage, is currently under investigation for her practices as Alaska's governor, and has a daughter who is walking proof that her abstinence only sex-education policies don't work. If John McCain's aim in picking a woman was to appeal to disenfranchised Clinton supporters, that aim has failed. These women will not vote for someone who thinks abortions shouldn't even be legal in the case of rape or incest, and they definitely won't vote for a ticket with a frontman who thinks that he'll get votes just because he picked a woman as his running mate.

I anxiously await the VP debate. The difference in experience is mind-boggling.

I'll leave you with this: