About the demographics question, small, tightly-targeted groups like 'Jewish Floridians,' and 'southern white men,' aren't on the level of magnitude of women voters. Like I said, they're more than 50% of the electorate. The value of their vote is of an entirely different order than the much-smaller, more targeted groups, and the party that delivers policy and power to them most effectively won't have to deal in the Mark Pennish, micro-targeting bullshit that produced candidates like Lieberman and Edwards.

About McCain's POW sleeve-wearing, the Obama campaign actually went furthest in dismantling his credibility last week with their 'housing' media offensive. And of course that was all before Biden was even picked, let alone on the attack against McCain's POW cred.

Finally, I personally think Biden isn't an unredeemable pick. To his credit, he's about as liberal as pres ticket candidates are willing to be these days. But the Times reported that Obama picked him particularly for the micro-targeting reasons that you decry.

About the demographics question, small, tightly-targeted groups like 'Jewish Floridians,' and 'southern white men,' aren't on the level of magnitude of women voters. Like I said, they're more than 50% of the electorate. The value of their vote is of an entirely different order than the much-smaller, more targeted groups, and the party that delivers policy and power to them most effectively won't have to deal in the Mark Pennish, micro-targeting bullshit that produced candidates like Lieberman and Edwards.

About McCain's POW sleeve-wearing, the Obama campaign actually went furthest in dismantling his credibility last week with their 'housing' media offensive. And of course that was all before Biden was even picked, let alone on the attack against McCain's POW cred.

Finally, I personally think Biden isn't an unredeemable pick. To his credit, he's about as liberal as pres ticket candidates are willing to be these days. But the Times reported that Obama picked him particularly for the micro-targeting reasons that you decry.

Powell has repeatedly praised Obama's presidential run, and has offered him foreign policy advice. I very much doubt that he would do anything to derail Obama. In fact, Powell has refused to even endorse any candidate.

http://www.feministing.com/archives/010594.html

Biden's also a long-serving member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which, because it vets and approves Supreme Court nominees, has an incredibly important role in protecting choice. There's good and bad on Biden's record here. He chaired the committee from 1987 to 1995, presiding over the confirmation hearings of Robert Bork (who was rejected) and Clarence Thomas.

Biden's role in the Thomas hearings, particularly his treatment of Anita Hill, are something that get little mention these days. (Although some women remember.) Biden says he did not vociferously pursue Hill's charges of sexual harassment because he didn't want to go after a Supreme Court nominee the way Republicans would. Here's Charles Ogletree, who represented Hill, on why Biden's excuse is bullshit:

OGLETREE: (Senator Biden) doesn't understand that by sitting back and taking no position that he has encouraged the victimization of Anita Hill. She has civil rights and civil liberties, too. She wasn't applying for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. She was not coming forward with an agenda to change the landscape of America.

And so for him to say that he didn't help her because he didn't want to be like the other side, to me, is to acknowledge that he has neglected to do his duties. He was the chairman. He was supposed to ask tough questions. He was supposed to get to the bottom of issues….And the bottom line is that Anita Hill was pilloried from beginning to end without any protection from anybody in that process….

What the senator did regrettably was to bend over in the wrong direction, and I think he did a great disservice in the sense of civil rights by being so tolerant of the lack of responsiveness on the part of one party and being so intolerant of efforts on the other side to bring out issues that may have shed light on (Thomas' character).

Some believe that thanks to Joe Biden, and his refusal to let those testify who confirmed Anita Hill's allegations, we now have Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.

She “LET IT [them] GO!!! :>) :>)

Whew!! Really out of breath DEEP Breaths!! :>) :>)

Did I miss anything???? JUST KIDDING!!!! :>) :>)

Here's the song – – “Ebony and Ivory” [Stevie Wonder] :>) :>) :>)

So B O has been transformed into O – B and to me this says . . .

DING! DING! DING!! We have a WINNER!!!!

billary WHO???? :>) :>)

I said – “Nice shirt!” He said, VERY LOUDLY – “He's the only one to vote for! He's my man!!”

There was a thunderous applause on the bus!!! It was a great moment!!! :>) :>)

McCain's camp is just trying to get some PRESS. What is crystal clear is that the Obama camp managed to make choosing his VP pick a week long media frenzy which built up to a huge peak, expertly carried out so that the entire day today, its been wall to wall coverage on MSNBC, CNN and Fox. A Saturday, so that all the people that work Mon thru Fri got the full brunt of the excitement. The biggest day of the week for print news is the Sunday paper and Obama and Biden are on EVERY front page tomorrow, and every Sunday talk show will have full VP coverage and then right on schedule, its Monday and time for the convention. Brilliant.

By Monday McCain's camp might be putting out the rumor that Oprah is a potential VP pick for him.