All About Joe Biden

This week in Joe Biden:

The Democratic VP hopeful released medical records today that prove he's in excellent health for a 65-year-old man. He doesn't show symptoms that put him at risk for a future aneurysm, though he hasn't had a brain scan to completely rule it out.

In other Biden news, while fundraising in Seattle yesterday he provided the McCain campaign with all new fodder for advertisements and emails. He warned that the race would tighten before Election Day -- and, more controversially, that Obama would be tested by some international crisis in his first six months as president:

Remember I said it standing here. if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. And he's gonna have to make some really tough -- I don't know what the decision's gonna be, but I promise you it will occur.

Biden does not suggest that McCain would be any more qualified for such a crisis, but he does seem to imply that an Obama presidency would invite this test.

I think it's safe to assume we'll see this quote quite a few more times before November 4th. Whether or not it will have much impact -- with most voters concerned more about the fledgling economy -- is unclear. But it does give McCain the opportunity to resurrect questions about Obama's experience.

The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza has a profile of Joe Biden this week that, in addition to detailing his selection as VP, offers a timely take on his propensity to not attract any news... until he says the wrong thing:

Biden's time on the trail has been defined more by a series of supposed gaffes--morsels of content that are perfect for a Drudge Report headline, or a YouTube clip. His style does not play well in the modern media environment, and coverage of his gaffes has sometimes overshadowed the substance in his speeches, such as the moment when, at a rally in Missouri, he asked a state senator in a wheelchair to stand up.

-- Thomas Pierce

5:37 PM ET | 10-20-2008 | permalink

comments | | e-mail