Obama's New Southern Strategy: Send Biden

No matter how much I hooted and mooed when Bill Clinton slithered on stage last night to nourish his ego afresh, I couldn't help cracking a smile of recognition when Bubba brought out his slowest drawl to declare, "I looove Joe Biden."

I have been hearing that exact same phrase, drawn out just the same way, from Southern delegates all week when I asked them about Obama's number two. "Oh, we looove Joe Biden," they say, almost always adding that they love him because he just comes on out and says it, consequences be damned. It's been a while since anybody in Dixie was saying such things about a Democrat on the ticket. And it counts as just about the highest compliment a politician can get down there.

Biden's big speech was hardly a classic from start to finish. But what a start: His son Beau (the new heartthrob of the Democratic set--at least my set) got the waterworks going, and Biden kept it flowing for a good while--until that awful "More of the Same" refrain came a-clunking, with the Democrats holding signs bearing the wretched phrase, waving them on cue as if they were auditioning for the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. I almost like Biden better for fumbling those pedestrian lines.

But when Biden means it, you know it--and the things he meant last night, he said with a kind of conviction and sincerity that the '90s version of a Democratic populist, ol' Bill, can only match in his rarest performances. Biden looks a lot like Barack Obama's Bill Clinton--a guy who speaks the kind of American that Democrats in the South and the Midwest can hear. While the general consensus about "using Bill" has been "send him to Appalachia," Biden just might be able to relieve Bubba of that duty and make a fresher case for Obama and the Democrats.

Biden's populism is something different from Clinton's, thank goodness. Unlike the former president, whose political radar (as my friend and Southern strategy foe Tom Schaller noted today) is still set firmly in the mid-'90s mode of Democratic defensiveness, Biden's populism is of the moment. It's not just his Old Democratic refrain--"I'm here for the cops, the firefighters, the teachers and the assembly workers"--which suddenly sounds relevant again, given the economic catastrophes such people are suffering. It's not just the way Biden can turn steely as hell--into the kind of leader a lot of blue-collar folk recognize most readily. (It sounded like he got it from his mom, who told him when he was picked on: "Bloody their nose, so you can walk down the street the next day." Which is a little scary, but also about as real as it gets.)

Biden's greatest asset among white and black "regular people," whether in South Carolina or Southern Ohio, is mainly emotional. Which is precisely where the post-Clinton Democrats have had such trouble connecting. You can sense it even when Biden utters the drabbest of catch phrases: "Let me make this pledge to you right here and now." When John Kerry used to say that, it sounded like nothing but empty political rhetoric. When Biden says it, his eyes are boring into yours (or the camera's), both begging and demanding you to believe him--and it's tough to resist believing indeed that he is making you a pledge, right here and now. And you can't wait, given that it's Biden, to hear what in the world he might be getting ready to pledge.

Where Clinton felt your pain, you sense that Biden has lived it. When Biden talks about folks sitting around the proverbial kitchen table, it's pretty easy to see him sitting at that table -- not looking down on it from a lofty perch and observing the people's pain, but participating in it. Biden's testimony about Barack's Obama's "quality of heart" genuinely matters -- because Biden's heart hangs right out there, and it's the kind of heart that just about every Middle American can recognize. When Biden says, "It's whether or not you can look your child in the eye and say, 'It's going to be all right,' " it comes out in a way that lifts it right off the teleprompter.

I hope at least a small share of my fellow Southerners, and other Middle Americans, were tuned in to hear Biden. Because those who were were bound to have shed some tears, whether they wanted to or not. And that is an emotion -- among many others -- that Democrats have had an awfully hard time provoking over these fallow last four decades. Bill could make you smile, as Obama can. But that's just one half of the formula. It's easy to lament the huge, irrational sway of primal emotional cues on so many millions of American voters -- and not just easy, but valid. But there's no way to deny that if Democrats are going to win, they have to reach people in the gut. Biden knows how.

Independent and swing voters, after all, tend to be people without much of an ideology; they are looking for a lot of (vague) qualities in candidates, but one common thread is that they want somebody whom they sense not only sees them, but knows them. There's no objective measure of that quality. Obama hasn't shown it much so far. Biden, with all the flaws in his voting record and for all his frightening motor-mouthiness, has it. In an otherwise lousy summer, Obama just might have gotten one thing right.

UPDATE: Video of Biden's convention speech below

Comments (19)

1. Damn if Biden didn't sound like Harry Truman last night. All that "get up an fight" stuff

   Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 08/28/2008 @ 08:30am

2. Obama's chances in the south are about as good as McCain's in California.

   Give it a rest.

   Posted by bleedingheart at 08/28/2008 @ 08:38am

3. "Obama's chances in the south are about as good as McCain's in California."

   Not the point. Make McCain and the Republicans spend money--there are legislative races, too.

   Posted by onthehelm at 08/28/2008 @ 08:45am

4. Posted by onthehelm at 08/28/2008 @ 08:45am

   Exactly. bleeding isn't much of a strategic thinker.

   You don't have to WIN the South...you just make sure that McCain has to DEFEND the South...spend money (he won't have after next week) in places he SHOULD have "locked up".

   Then the battlegrounds (and possibly some places like Virginia) open up to Obama, who'll have buckets of cash and poor ol' Maverick will have to make appearances in Birmingham, Biloxi, and Charleston (both).

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 08:57am

5. It is the point. Candidates campaigning to change America, must actually, in reality, visit and campaign in America. What type of candidate/person writes off the views of people he never has met? Is that the type of person you want leading your country?

   Posted by pactorj at 08/28/2008 @ 09:03am

6. Obama won't make the same disastrous mistake that Kerry made four years ago when he basically wrote of the South as being a lost cause.

   Biden will help, sure, but so will Bill Clinton. After all he was the last Democrat to carry the South.

   Biden's blue collar, Catholic background will help out in key battleground states like PA, OH and MI.

   Posted by Zeddmen at 08/28/2008 @ 09:26am

7. only obama has a populist message, everything mcbush campaign does, besides insult everybody, is to strategize, pay off lobbyists/pacs to do dirty work, use third-parties to swift-boat, all rove tactics.....mcbush has serious anger control issues, psychological issues, I dont care about pow, pow, etc., etc...kerry was decorated soldier, it didn't matter then, why now??? mccain s h i t s on veterans and then expects their support???? you have got to be kidding...his pandering makes one puke......america, wake up!!!!!you don't have to all munch granola, just don't be idiots......like our current president, please god no more....can't go on.....feeling stupider and stupider.....

   Posted by jrs112 at 08/28/2008 @ 10:25am

8. The other part of the Democrats campaigning in the South is party-building. Even if they can't win the federal election in Texas, they can still win state legislative seats.

   Since the state legislatures redraft the Congressional districts after each census (including the one coming up in 2010), that could also have federal implications.

   Everyone should remember what Tom DeLay was able to bring about with the Texas state legislature a few years ago.

   Posted by brunowe at 08/28/2008 @ 11:18am

9. Quote "Independent and swing voters, after all, tend to be people without much of an ideology."

   This is exactly why Michigan is independant, and going republican for the most part. 1. If you understand Michigan you may see other States shipping by Bus people to Michigan or Fresno area. This is Homeless shelters so read the study's of fact. So being "Independant" you see that Democrats always want to tell you how to spend your money. Fact, I am working how many more days per year since your last budget? I know, do you care? Get out of my Michigan pocket and level the playing field per state. This would mean democrats and republicans across the board growing up. Me, and wife have spent countless hours and years listening to both party's nonsense and community service. I am a catholic, so what. Morality is my vote. So goes the moral's, so goes the Nation. I do not care if you read Howard Zinn, to Lord Acton to Thucydides. Think for yourself and never confuse confidence with arrogance. You should understand the perfect law of liberty and that price of calvary. Now go far away and think you understand Michigan. Excuse IMHO to basic answer to a presupposition. 2. Never mind, working people have better things to and stay out of debt. 3. Back to step one. Is , Is not, or you better hope not. Bengamin Franklin

   Posted by vaedem at 08/28/2008 @ 11:48am

10. Morality is my vote. So goes the moral's, so goes the Nation.---Posted by vaedem at 08/28/2008 @ 11:48am

    Morality on what issues?

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:11pm

11. "His son Beau (the new heartthrob of the Democratic set"

    all sooooooooo cliché............

    there's only three pundits who matter:

    randy, paula, and simon.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 12:23pm

12. Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 12:23pm

    What if we got...

    Sass, Farley, Zack, and Jake????

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:31pm

13. Biden is a likeable guy. But what bothers me about politicians generally is their tendency to shoot from the hip on complicated foreign policy issues. While not comparing their political philosophies, this tendency is shared by Biden and McCain. I think they are friends because they have similar personalities, and they both shoot from the hip. There are two sides to every story, and in order to solve international problems, you need to understand both stories in order to reconcile their differences. You cannot reconcile these differences, if you come down on one side before you know all the facts. The objective of foreign policy is to solve problems.and you don't start negotiations with a scream. Does Jim Baker scream?

    Posted by P. J. Casey at 08/28/2008 @ 1:31pm

14. Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 12:45pm

    Or Biden could point out how "great" they're doing under Bush and ask them if they want "four more years"?

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 1:45pm

15. the cops, the firefighters, the teachers and the assembly workers"--

    Gee LL, are there many of them playing the market these days? If they're in, they're likely in 401k's which are subject to ordinary tax at the time of withdrawal, not the capital gains tax.

    "Maybe he can tell BMW workers how he wants to destroy their auto jobs like they did with the Unions and the Big 3."

    Right, bad management decisions had nothing to do with that. Like Ford's acquisition of Jaquar (money-pit). Like the inferior quality of GM vehicles. Like the overall production of gas-guzzlers and the generally inferior quality of the products relative to their foreign competitors.

    Posted by brunowe at 08/28/2008 @ 1:47pm

16. Kinda ironic that southerners loooove the blunt Biden. Forthrightness of speech is a rare commodity down in Dixie.

    Posted by Hank Moon at 08/28/2008 @ 2:07pm

17. Sass, Farley, Zack, and Jake????

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/28/2008 @ 12:31pm

    wow. i had to google that.

    i am so proud.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 2:34pm

18. My brother the public school teacher is invested directly; my youngest son the firefighter is invested directly. My brother-in-law the cop is invested directly.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/28/2008 @ 1:55pm

    haha!

    all union members.

    here:

    Clergy's union in plea for job rights

    By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent

    Last Updated: 12:22AM GMT 27 Dec 2003

    The clergy trade union stepped up demands for clerics to be protected by employment law yesterday after a survey revealed that many feel insecure in their jobs.

    A poll by the Amicus union among 1,000 members of its clergy and Church workers section found that a third felt that their Church had not dealt fairly or honestly with them.

    Two thirds said they were facing changes to their roles, with only 16 per cent being offered financial assistance, and nearly 40 per cent said they feared their present posts were insecure.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/28/2008 @ 2:39pm

19. "40% of Americans are invested in the market. My brother the public school teacher is invested directly; my youngest son the firefighter is invested directly. My brother-in-law the cop is invested directly."

    It isn't my response that't disconnected from reality.

    In 2005, only 23.3% of households owned individual stocks outside ERISA plans. The median household income of those persons was $75,000. Think there are that many cops, teachers, etc. in the South who have that kind of money?

    Incidentally, Obama only plans on raising the capital gains rate on those earning over $250,000. Also, only 11% of tax filers earning $200,000 or less had income subject to capital gains tax. 51% of people over that mark pay it. How many cops, teachers, firefighters and assembly-line workers are over that mark?

    Posted by brunowe at 08/28/2008 @ 4:17pm