The Best Out of All the Possible Choices

Everyone is laughing at William Kristol’s sudden conversion to feminism:

Will the Democratic party, which is committed (to say the least) to gender equity, and which in fact has a 50 percent quota for female delegates, accept Obama’s imposition of a glass ceiling at its convention?

A modest suggestion to my justifiably outraged Democratic friends: Hillary’s name should be placed in nomination not for the presidency (Obama won that more or less fair and square)–but for the vice presidency.

Debrazza at The Jed Report notes Kristol’s concern with glass ceilings, but suggests he might also want to think about glass houses.

James Joyner scoffs at Kristol’s claim that Clinton’s and Biden’s foreign policy experience are “comparable”:

And, please, let’s not pretend that Hillary Clinton has anything like Joe Biden’s foreign policy gravitas. It’s been his bread and butter since Hillary was in law school. She’s a junior Senate backbencher whose “experience” until eight years ago consisted of being married to a powerful man. Did she learn a lot as a result of that partnership? Sure. Is it comparable to chairing the Foreign Relations Committee? Not hardly.

Agreed, and that raises a thought about the meme started by Ron Fournier and eagerly picked up by other deep political thinkers, that Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as his running mate shows that Obama “lacks self-confidence” and that he’s “insecure” about national security. But just a few short months ago, when Obama clinched the nomination, Roger Simon at Politico was saying that Obama needed to show he could be “tough, strong and in charge” by not offering Sen. Clinton the vice-presidency. Jennifer Rubin, who now sagely agrees with Politico’s pundits that Biden is a “conventional” and “safe” choice that shows how “insecure” Obama is about his qualifications, back on June 4 was warning of “four or eight years of lime-light-stealing” if Hillary Clinton got the vice-presidency, and telling us that “… Clinton is attempting to strong-arm the new nominee.” The Weekly Standard, where today Bill Kristol moaned about glass ceilings and gender inequities, less than three months ago was cautioning Obama that, if he chose Clinton to run with him, “… he might look like a weak candidate unable to stand up to the Clintons. And you can imagine what Republicans would say: If he knuckles under to the Clintons, how could he stand up to hostile world leaders?”.

The obvious point being that if Obama had picked Clinton as his running mate, the same wingnuts who are now shrieking that Obama’s choice of Biden shows that Obama’s not about change and doubts his own abilities, would be arguing that if he wanted to shore up his (supposed) lack of experience and appear strong and resolute, he would have picked a foreign policy expert like Joe Biden.

More on Kristol and the right’s Biden-bashing from Kyle Moore, Barbara O’Brien, Steve Benen, Norbizness, Matthew Yglesias, Damozel (excellent roundup), Gun Toting Liberal, Jesse Taylor, and Jill Miller Zimon (a must-read titled “The Wisdom of Choosing Joe Biden”).

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