Ok, so it wasn’t said in such direct words, but there’s been a bit of indirect verbal sparring between our current Veep Dick Cheney, and our Veep to be Joe Biden.  Biden recently cut an interview discussing his thoughts on the Vice Presidential role, and the man who will hand the job over to him and… well… let’s just say they were less than flattering-

I think the recommendations, the advice that he has given to President Bush — and maybe advice the president already had decided on before he got it — I’m not making that judgment — has been not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and it has not been consistent with our Constitution, in my view.

His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power, you know, goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong. I think it was mistaken. I think that it caused this administration in adopting that notion to overstep its constitutional bounds, but at a minimum to weaken our standing the world and weaken our security. I stand by that, that judgment.

And he also went on to say that he still thinks we should have gone into Iraq, knowing exactly what we knew and the way we did, as I — I heard the interview. He also stands by the fact that we still should keep Guantanamo Bay open and so on. So — so we have fundamentally different view.

Nothing thus far that would change my fundamental view that Guantanamo should close, number one, that, number two, the way in which we have conducted our policy, in terms of both surveillance as well as the detainees, has hurt our reputation around the world.

And to quote from a previous national security report put out by the — the intelligence community, we have — we have created, not dissuaded, more terrorists as a consequence of this policy.

Well, ol’ Dick was not happy with this criticism, and said in an interview of his own that Biden would wise up after spending some time in his shoes.  Other tidbits include-

“He also said that all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in Article I of the Constitution,” Cheney said in a interview that was conducted on Friday. “Well, they’re not. Article I of the Constitution is the one on the legislative branch.”

“Joe’s been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can’t keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive. So I think I’d write that off as campaign rhetoric. I don’t take it seriously.”

“If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that’s obviously his call,” Cheney shrugged. “President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and apparently, from the way they’re talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time.”

“The president of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States,” Cheney said. “He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen.

“He doesn’t have to check with anybody. He doesn’t have to call the Congress. He doesn’t have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in.”

Aaaannnnnd… we’ll end on that note, because to me, that last bit encompases everything Cheney’s stay in the White House has been about to him, and I can’t wait until someone a little less… apocalyptic takes his place.

Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin has made much noise about the fact that her son, Track Palin, headed off to war last month.  Not to be outdone, Joe Biden’s son, Beau Biden,  is off to Iraq as well.

Just kidding, well… sort of.  It’s not a game of one-up-manship, but all the same, the timing is quite fortunate for the Democrats.  While both McCain and Palin have been taking shots at the Dems for not voting to provide more funding for the troops (it’s not about funding, it’s about time-tables.  Dems want them, Reps don’t, they each vote accordingly regardless of what else is attached to the vote) and Palin herself has a son who is off to the war that the Reps are standing behind so intensely now is a perfect time for the Dems to appear to have more of a personal stake in things.

So, good timing and best of luck to Beau Biden and his unit, as well as Track Palin and his unit as they both go to war, and serve as symbols for their respective parent’s parties.

After the essential non-event that was the first Presidential Debate last week, this week we have the potential Veeps taking the stage. Obama and McCain gave us little to go off of other than what we already knew about them and essentially left the stage in a draw, though as days have gone by and more scrutiny has been placed on the debate many would point to Obama as the winner, much of which could be due to McCain’s obvious disdain for his opponent. Though a continued smolder and tight grimace is arguably better than the explosion of temper that could’ve happened as McCain has displayed in his past. So the Reps have to be happy about that at least.

So now it’ll be Biden (who made an appearance after the debate to lend to the discussion) and Palin (who rarely makes any sort of an appearance except in restaurants where she can occationally be found to make statements that go in direct opposition to her running mate’s positions) taking to the podiums.

What kind’ve strategy (or would it be tactics?) do the Vice Presidential candidates need to employ to win this election? Well, Palin has a few things going for her- no one expects anything good from her, she’ll have a chance to do her “pitbull” attack directly in her opponent’s face which is exactly what her base desires of her, and should Biden go from defense to offense in return he’ll be seen as bullying (you can ask Hillary Clinton all about that… gee, seems sexism can run in favor of the very people who claim it from time to time, can’t it?). So basically Palin needs to keep her answers short and sweet, stick to what she knows, and do her best to be funny and biting with her criticisms. Biden won’t be able to do anything in response to the latter, and as for the answers to questions- she needs to stay away from riffing, because that tends to be when she proves just how little she actually knows (sounds a little like our current Prez doesn’t it?).

Biden on the other hand is not exempt from making verbal slips himself, and will need to do much the same in the short and sweet answer vein. If anything, Biden needs to keep from overexposing himself and overplaying his hand. When asked a question, show that he has a grasp of the topic, express the policy choices that he and Obama are making, and leave it at that. He also needs to keep from adressing Palin too much, especially in the way that McCain was addressing Obama. No comments of inexperience, no comments of being naive, and don’t go on the attack when she’s brutally wrong and floundering. The reporters and commentators and analysts will handle that more than enough when the debate is over. If Biden plays too heavy handed he could come across as a bully, and that’s the last thing the Dems need right now, because it would give Palin a free pass.

If anything Biden needs to attack the man who won’t be there, and that’s McCain. Obama was too reserved to score a KO punch on any of the opportunities he was given.

So what will be the result of this Debate? Well, if Biden comes out ahead, no one will be shocked or surprised, but it’s likely more of the undecided middle will lean towards Obama and Biden as McCain comes across as prickly and arrogant after his last appearance, and it’s likely that Palin’s (I’m sorry, I have no other word for it) cattiness and lack of understanding of questions or answers will prove too frightening a combination. If Palin somehow managed to recover amazingly from past media Q&A sessions and is suddenly eloquent and well informed on all things Executive Branch related it will be a major coup for the Reps and could calm the fears that even many in their own base have about Palin.

Part of me is almost hoping for a complete train wreck in this week’s Debate to prove just how much of a farce this whole thing has become, but at the same time, no one will really benefit from that. Rather, I hope everyone can get their shit together and we can get past the bluff and bluster and the American public can actually learn something about the people who could potentially be a last breath away from being the President themselves.

Watch the debate Live from Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, October 2nd at 8pm CST.

While in New Hampshire, Veep Candidate Joe Biden made the statement that “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America”, and “She’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America and, quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me”.

Well, those are interesting words from the man recently chosen to be the second in command.

One has to wonder, were these just off handed candid remarks, or are the Dems playing at something here?

If you’ll permit me a moment of indulgence… a theory.

Biden was chosen as the party’s Veep because of all the things he’s not. He’s not different from the norm. He’s not a very provocative figure. He wouldn’t stand out in a crowd of politicans. He’s another older white guy politician.

After Biden is named, the Reps turn around to make their own choice, and in part to capitalize on the disenfranchised Hillary voters, they pick Palin. Their own version of “something different” plus the “women scorned” voters from the Hillary fall-out could be picked off while the wounds of their choice not being anywhere on the ticket are still fresh.

Now Biden says that Hillary might’ve been the better choice. The bitterness of the Primary battle between Obama and Hillary is starting to fade, and the party is uniting.

Something comes up, Biden withdraws from the ticket under whatever pretense makes everyone feel most comfy, and then… Hillary comes back into the fold. In the battle between the two women, Hillary being the more experiences politician and better fighter blazes right past the lighter-weight Palin. Counting on the quality oratory skills of Obama to carry him through McCain, the Dem ticket comes out looking unstoppable and handily picks up the roles of Prez and Veep.

Or, he could’ve just been rambling. Who knows?

Here are a few weekend poll result for your viewing pleasure:

First- How the Veeps compare in the eyes of the voters

In the poll taken Friday, 39 percent said (Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin) is ready to serve as president if needed, 33 percent said she isn’t and 29 percent have no opinion.

That’s the lowest rating any running mate has had since then-Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle was selected in 1988 to join George H.W. Bush’s team.

By contrast, 57 percent of voters rated Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as qualified after Obama selected him last week. Eighteen percent said he wasn’t qualified

And second- What was the most viewed television event of the summer?  (hint, it WASN’T the Olympics)

The just-concluded Democratic National Convention in Denver was the most-watched since at least 1960 and drew more viewers than the Summer Olympics, according to figures released by the Nielsen Co.

The quadrennial gathering was seen in 27.7 million homes, breaking the record of 21.9 million who tuned in to the 1976 Republican convention, when President Gerald Ford won the nomination over Ronald Reagan; and the 20.7 million who watched the 1980 Democratic convention when President Jimmy Carter beat back a challenge by Senator Edward Kennedy. The figures are the highest since New York-based Nielsen began keeping track in 1960.

On average, the four-day Democratic convention drew 30.2 million viewers as Illinois Senator Barack Obama, 47, became the first black presidential nominee of a major political party. This year’s Olympic Games averaged 27.7 million. Viewership of the Denver convention was almost 50 percent higher than the 20.4 million who tuned into the Democrats four years ago.

Obama’s acceptance speech before more than 75,000 people at Invesco Field Aug. 28 attracted viewers in 27.7 million households. The most-watched broadcast, the finale of the CBS television show “M.A.S.H.,” was seen in 50.2 million, Nielsen figures show.

The 38.4 million individuals who watched Obama’s address on television represented a 57 percent increase over the 24.4 million who saw Democratic Senator John Kerry’s acceptance speech in Boston four years ago.

How will the Republican National Convention compare?  Stay tuned, we’ll let you know.

How do you compete against the first black presidential candidate?  You tap that p**sy!

Crude, I know, but I’m allowed these jokes.  When you own a vagina, it allows you certain liberties:

Give it to us CNN:

Sen. John McCain on Friday announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate, calling her “the running mate who can best help me shake up Washington.”

“She’s exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second,” the presumptive Republican nominee said at a Dayton, Ohio, rally of about 15,000 supporters, who welcomed the surprise pick of the relatively unknown politician with cheers and flags.

“She’s got the grit, integrity, good sense and fierce devotion to the common good that is exactly what we need in Washington today,” McCain said.

Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Palin

Palin, 44, told the crowd, “To have been chosen brings a great challenge. I know that it will demand the best that I have to give and I promise nothing less.”

Palin is a first-term governor who unseated incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary in 2006 and went on to defeat former Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election.

She will be the first woman to be nominated for vice president as a Republican and only the second to run for vice president on a major party ticket, after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.

Palin also will be the first Alaskan to be on the ticket for either party.

I was actually a bit shocked by the choice as such a blatant gimmick. I mean really, what better way to compete against the first black presidential candidate than to tag team with a woman? If America thought they had come to terms with their highly suppressed sexism and racism guilt, I can’t WAIT to see what level it’s taken to now!

Ironically, I think his choice will make feminists across the nation’s blood curl.

UPDATE: Bloomburg gives us more information about who this Sarah Palin chick is:

Palin has a strong anti-abortion record. She is a member of Feminists for Life, a group that works to make health-care and child-care resources available to “pregnant or parenting students,” according to the group’s Web site.

Palin, a former beauty queen, high school basketball star and television sportscaster, began her political career in the 1990s as a city councilwoman and then mayor in her home town of Wasilla. The town’s estimated population in 2007 was 9,780, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Earlier this year, Palin threatened to evict Exxon Mobil Corp. and its partners BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips from a state-owned gas field, winning a promise from them to boost Alaska’s natural-gas output by 17 percent.

Palin hasn’t been implicated in the four-year-old federal corruption investigation, which has resulted in convictions of or guilty pleas from three state legislators, Murkowski’s former chief of staff and two executives of an oil-services company, as well as the indictment of Senator Ted Stevens.

I’m guessing it’ll be less than 48 3 hours before scandals or scrutinies (real or imaginary) of Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Biden are jammed into our faces.

Here are three I guarantee will come out of the gates early:

1. Military service record:  At the height of the Vietnam war in 1968, Biden was prime for the draft at 26 years old but was rejected for “medical reasons“.  I’m sure details of his rejection will become clearer in the following weeks.  It should be noted that his son, Beau Biden, has orders to deploy to Iraq on October 3rd, 2008 with his Delaware National Guard JAG unit.  Will his son bring a balance for the senior Biden’s lack of military record?
2. Biden supported the Bush Administration post 9/11and voted in favor of the Iraq invasion.  Flip-flopping. Our favorite campaign hyphenation.
3. In 1988, Bidden was caught plagiarizing several lines from the speech of Neil Kinnock, then British Labor party leader.

Got another one? Let me know…..

The AP reports Obama’s choice for VP will be Joe Biden.  At least the wait is over.  I was starting to get annoyed by all the Obama campaign emails asking me to join their text-messaging and email lists to be the first alerted of his veep choice.

What’s that you say?  You still haven’t received your “first-to-know” text message??  oops…

Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with an older congressional veteran well-versed in foreign and defense issues.

Biden, who has twice sought the White House, is a Catholic with a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.

Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation and Constitutional issues.

The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, preferring not to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.

Obama’s campaign arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfiled, Ill.

The Democratic National Convention meets next week in Denver to hand Obama his long-sought presidential nomination, and then confirm Biden.

It’s a nice way for an organization to boost it’s voter contact list with phone numbers and emails, eh?  Does anyone else feel a little cheated?

UPDATE: 3:00 am EST

Obama’s decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Obama had chosen. The campaign scrambled to send the text message after the leak, sending phones buzzing at the inconvenient time of just after 3 a.m. on the East coast.

Good morning!

The easiest answer would be- seek out the backing of one who has been there in your stead.  And that may well be what Dem Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is doing at present moment.  In this time of consistent military action in the Middle East, and with the ever looming threat of escalation always casting a shadow on the future, Obama has a mighty disadvantage against a far more experienced war vet such as Rep Presidential Candidate John McCain.

North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad told The Associated Press said the team asked him about potential candidates from three broad categories — current top elected officials, former top elected officials, and former top military leaders.

Conrad would not disclose which names they discussed, and the Obama campaign has been keeping the process a closely guarded secret.

‘‘We talked about many names,’’ Conrad said, including ‘‘some that are out of the box but I think would be very well received by the American people, including former top military leaders.’’

Many former military leaders have been involved in the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. Some of Obama’s most prominent campaign advisers have been Gen. Tony McPeak, who was Air Force chief of staff during Operation Desert Storm; Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who flew repeated combat missions and has worked with Obama on a range of military issues since before he began his presidential campaign; and Richard Danzig, who was secretary of the Navy under President Clinton.

He might also look at some of former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top military advisers in a gesture of unity, retired generals who include Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; or Wesley Clark, who led the war in Kosovo and ran in the presidential primary four years ago. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who served as Navy secretary under President Reagan, has also been frequently mentioned as a possible running mate.

In an area where Obama has been seen lacking, picking up a veteran could bring a great hand to the table.

That’s right gang, the time in the election process where the Presidential Candidates begin to hunt down their 4-8 year soulmates. The yin to their yang, the Ed to their Johnny, the Triscuit to their Easy Cheese…

You get the idea.

So while Obama does but doesn’t have someone hunting for possible running mates (he’s keeping mum about the whole ordeal), McCain is using his hunt in a more savvy a way… as an election tool with battle ground state Florida providing the home for at least one contender for the next best thing.

Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a onetime rival for the Republican nomination, have all accepted invitations to visit Mr. McCain at his ranch in Sedona, Republicans said.

Mr. McCain himself has said his choice of a running mate would draw particular scrutiny from voters given Mr. McCain’s age; he is now 71, or “as old as dirt,” as he likes to joke, while quickly adding that he is in good health. More than that, with Mr. Obama’s selection as his party’s nominee now almost assured, Mr. McCain is contemplating a contest against an energized Democratic electorate after a campaign that has highlighted race and gender issues.

Mr. Crist, a fairly popular first-term governor, has been included on various lists of potential running mates for Mr. McCain, whom he endorsed shortly before Florida’s January primary, which effectively helped Mr. McCain claim the nomination. Mr. Crist said Wednesday that he and Mr. McCain had not discussed the prospect, not even at a fund-raiser in Miami that the two attended Tuesday night.

As governor of Florida, Mr. Crist, 51, would bring obvious assets to the Republican ticket, beginning with his popularity in a state that is almost always an electoral battleground — and where Mr. Obama appears to be struggling. Mr. Crist’s relative youth could also be an asset for Mr. McCain, who has made clear that age will be a consideration in his search for a running mate.

In Florida, Mr. Crist has long been known for his affability and a campaign skills. Instantly recognizable because of his perpetual tan and striking white hair, Mr. Crist, who was Florida’s attorney general before being elected governor in 2006, has also acquired a reputation as something of a hard-liner on law and order issues.

He supports the death penalty, largely opposes restrictions on the rights of gun owners, early on earned the nickname “Chain Gang Charlie” because he favored allowing convicts to be used in road work, and has described himself as a “pro-life and pro-family” candidate.

Mr. Romney, the former chief executive who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2008 and who was born in Michigan, has made no secret of his desire to join Mr. McCain’s presidential ticket. Mr. Romney’s M.B.A. skills, and business background — including running the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games — could address concerns about Mr. McCain’s ability to manage a struggling economy.

Mr. Jindal, who was born in Baton Rouge, La., to a family that had just arrived there from the Punjab area of India, took office in January after serving three years in the House of Representatives. In a race with four candidates, Mr. Jindal, who was born a Hindu but converted to Roman Catholicism as a teenager, won 54 percent of the vote after campaigning as a social conservative, opposing human embryonic stem cell research and abortion in any form, and favoring teaching “intelligent design” in schools as an alternative to evolution.

So we’re looking at “Chain Gang Charlie”, Romney (the guy who failed at getting the nomination because of party distrust an inability to connect with voters and record of flip flopping on issues), and the guy who (prepping for backlash now) believes in magical tales of how we came to be against evidence that would prove the contrary, and wants all our kids to learn it that way too, regardless of whether they follow the same beliefs or not (and I won’t even further the shit storm I could be earning here by getting into abortion or stem cell research).

Those all sound like solid arguments to keep from voting on the Republican ticket, and here I thought I’d already had enough reasons.

As of this moment there’s no word on who Hillary Clinton in her alternate universe version of the elections is going to choose for her running mate.