Make love to me, sweet politician

Since we're all publicly commenting on the status of our presidential courtships, I might as well chip in.

A while back, I made the comment that I wanted to see some leadership from Obama. I was rightfully challenged to define what I meant by leadership, and my answer was probably some lame "I know it when I see it."

Well, I saw it. Obama has staked out the position on Iraq where everyone else needs to be. That's some serious not crap in my book. And then I saw it again, in his classy - but necessary - response to Joe Biden's knuckleheaded racism:

Obama later issued a statement that absolved Biden only in part. "I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally," he said, "but obviously they were historically inaccurate. African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate."

Again, serious not crap.

I'm sure in 2010, we may all be talking about how ahead of the political curve Obama's subtle positionings were for 2007 (for a presidential aspirant, at least). But for now, I'm impressed with him doing the Right Thing. Twice.

Profiles in douchebaggery

I've always thought of Joe Biden (D-MBNA) as your archetypal gasbag senator, beholden to Wall Street and possessing the charisma of a carp. He is, in fact, far, far worse:

The audience: predominantly Republican [ed: not just Republican. South Carolina Republican!].

Biden humorously took note of that in his opening remarks.

“I want to thank you all for allowing me a trip here to speak to only Republicans. It’s like my hometown. I just won every district in my state except the one I live in,” he quipped.

The crowd howled.

The senator then pounced on a member’s announcement that the club would hold its annual Christmas party at the state Department of Archives and History where members could view the original copy of the state’s Articles of Secession.

Biden asked, “Where else could I go to a Rotary Club where (for a) Christmas party the highlight is looking at the Articles?”

[...]

Biden was on a roll.

Delaware, he noted, was a “slave state that fought beside the North. That’s only because we couldn’t figure out how to get to the South. There were a couple of states in the way.”

The crowd loved it.

Read the whole post over at CorrenteWire. Tell me why this man thinks he has any shot of being president. Tell me why anyone in the Democratic leadership thinks Biden should retain his committee chairmanship. Tell me why he is constantly booked on Sunday gabfests... no, never mind on that last count - he thinks he's running for president. Got it.

Stunning.