Posted by Jed Lewison on Sat Aug 23, 2008 at 8:15 AM Pacific

Obama-Biden vs. Bush-McCain, pt. 2

Politically, I sense that the Bush-McCain folks are pretty scared right now. The smarter ones among them understand that the Biden pick wasn't about policy, it was about demographics, particularly with older voters, who haven't been Barack's staunchest supporters. Nate Silver laid out the case a few days ago.

And they also must understand that they are going to have an awful tough time picking their preferred VP, superwealthy elitist Mitt Romney, now that Obama has chosen Biden, who is the least wealthy Senator.

So far, all the sprinkled donuts crowd has got going for them is a press release from McCain spokesman Ron Fournier (on temporary assignment as chief of the AP's DC bureau). Between Fournier's fluffery and a couple of video clips of Joe Biden running for president against Barack Obama, the Bush-McCain crew is on fumes.

A conservative friend of mine who is considering supporting Obama and has been dismayed by the McCain campaign wrote me this morning about the pick:

Genius pick.  Gravitas; foreign policy expertise; party connections; no threat to Obama himself; loose cannon expected to say crazy things, so he can get away with saying things O can't; whitest white person alive who has demonstrated discomfort with O before, meaning folks of a certain age will identify with him; smart, and a good debater.

Oh, and my friend is from Pennsylvania...