Legal politicos pleased by Biden

Politicians, political analysts and progressive activists on Saturday assessed with almost a single voice of approval Barack Obama’s choice of Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running mate.

“His gravitas on foreign policy, his experience, really round out the ticket in a way we really needed to respond to the McCain campaign,” said legislator Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.

Huffman, one of the first Assembly members to endorse Obama before the state’s Feb. 5 primary, could have been reading from the same page as Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, who endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton during the primaries.

“He’s a good choice,” said Woolsey, who departs today for the Democratic convention in Denver. “He adds balance with his international-relations experience and his depth in defense issues.”

One contrary perspective came from longtime Sonoma County progressive activist Mary Moore, who said Obama represents little change from the established political order.

“I think that Obama and Biden will be better on domestic issues,” she said, “but I’m worried about the foreign policy issues, and I don’t see them as any different. Maybe a little slower to bomb, but I don’t see any fundamental changes.”

But Moore was the exception Saturday.

Interviewed via e-mail in Denver, Maria Echaveste, a former deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, said that while she “wasn’t initially wowed” by the choice of Biden, “the more I thought about it the more pleased I became.”

Echaveste, who campaigned for Sen. Clinton during the primaries and now teaches at UC Berkeley’s law school, said Biden’s foreign policy experience and working-class background are valuable, and that his reputation as a strong supporter of Israel may help the Democratic ticket in Florida, where Jews are about five percent of the voting population.

Also, Biden’s support for immigration reform will play well to Latino voters, who make up about nine percent of registered U.S. voters, said Echaveste, who runs the Nueva Vista Group, a government-relations consultancy in Washington, D.C.

Biden’s appeal to Obama was partly his appeal to the kind of voters who supported Clinton in the primaries, said David McCuan, an associate professor of political science at Sonoma State University.

“Because of his background and his ability to reach out to rural Ohio, rural Pennsylvania, Michigan, the perennially targeted states, Biden helps as an old-style Democratic establishment guy,”McCuan said. “That’s the Hillary Clinton appeal.”

Biden gave a fiery speech in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, during which he cited his long friendship with McCain, referring to him as John. Then he repeatedly used statements McCain has made in support of President Bush’s policies on Iraq and the economy against the Republican candidate.

Chip Roberson, a Sonoma County delegate to the national convention, said the speech went over well.

“I like the fire. He’s no nonsense,” he said. “Of all the names that were being bantered about, Biden has the best foreign policy experience, which many people, including myself, think is important.”

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said Biden will bring a directness to the campaign that will be useful against McCain, a candidate with a reputation for candor who dubbed his campaign bus “The Straight Talk Express.”

“He’s a straight shooter,” Thompson said of Biden. “He’s an incredible man.”

Almost as soon as the selection of Biden was made public, questions were raised about whether his public utterances could be used against him.

As a candidate for the Democratic nomination, he said Obama was “not yet ready” for the presidency, and he was forced to apologize after describing Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

Such statements, particularly that about Obama’s readiness, are probably already being used as fodder for Republican campaign ads, said political consultant Brian Sobel of Petaluma, a Republican.

For that reason, he said, “I was a bit surprised” at the choice of Biden.

Another early supporter of Obama, Santa Rosa City Councilman Lee Pierce, said Biden was “about as good as we are going to get.” He also brought up the issue of the senator’s comments.

“I think that he and the Obamas as individuals, their families and themselves, have a decent rapport, despite the sort of gaffe he was charged with in the primary,” Pierce said.

One thing the 65-year-old Biden won’t do is outshine his running mate, said McCuan of SSU.

“Biden doesn’t overshadow the rock star, or, if you will, the elegance or the sexiness of Obama,” McCuan said, “because he is essentially an old Senate hand.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com