Libertarians Weigh In On Biden

The reaction is pretty consistent- If Barack Obama wanted to court the civil liberties-minded left libertarians that Daily Kos was speaking of as available, he blew it with the pick of Biden. Here's a couple of reactions that got my attention.

From former DNC press secretary Terry Michael, his take on Biden:

In his first test of leadership, however, Sen. Obama tapped the man whose failure of judgment as the Democratic Party's front man on foreign affairs led congressional Democrats into collusion with, rather than principled opposition to, the neoconservatives and their criminal enterprise in Iraq. That decision reveals a politician without a compass.

Know thyself is a pretty good rule of thumb for judging leadership potential. By choosing Biden, Obama tells us he doesn't have much of a clue about himself.

From Radley Balko:

But from a policy perspective, it’s a disaster. Biden has sponsored more damaging drug war legislation than any Democrat in Congress. Hate the way federal prosecutors use RICO laws to take aim at drug offenders? Thank Biden. How about the abomination that is federal asset forfeiture laws? Thank Biden. Think federal prosecutors have too much power in drug cases? Thank Biden. Think the title of a “Drug Czar” is sanctimonious and silly? Thank Biden, who helped create the position (and still considers it an accomplishment worth boasting about). Tired of the ridiculous steroids hearings in Congress? Thank Biden, who led the effort to make steroids a Schedule 3 drug, and has been among the blowhardiest of the blowhards when it comes to sports and performance enhancing drugs. Biden voted in favor of using international development aid for drug control (think plan Columbia, plan Afghanistan, and other meddling anti-drug efforts that have only fostered loathing of America, backlash, and unintended consequences). Oh, and he was also the chief sponsor of 2004’s horrendous RAVE Act.

From Tyrrany Watch:

Barack Obama may be doing the one thing that might have seemed impossible: he’s picking a running mate whose ideas about Iraq are even worse than, and stupider than, John McCain’s.

Obama, whose mushy Iraq plan excites no one, is marrying his own’s flawed ideas — which mostly revolve around beefing up US forces in Afghanistan and unilaterally attacking Pakistan — with Biden’s discredited notion of partitioning Iraq into three squabbling mini-states.

My own reactions to Biden are that I remember him standing with McCain on Iraq issues; I remember him voting for the Patriot Act, twice; and it strikes me that we're going out of the frying pan and into the fire. George Bush picked Dick Cheney to shore up perceived weakness in foreign policy. Look how that worked out. So, we're going to have a foreign policy neo-con Dem who no doubt sees an opportunity to be as responsible for foreign policy design as the previous VP was? Not good.