Rethinking Biden

Now that they've gotten a load of Palin, Team Obama is staring at the prospect of a nationwide Reagan Democrat eruption. More immediately, they must rethink Biden’s role for the rest of the campaign.

Biden’s plain folks routine is clearly over: Next to a real outsider, his Scranton shtick risks sounding contrived. And as for hopping an Amtrak out of Washington every night, forget it. Compared to Juneau, Delaware may as well be inside the Beltway.

Obama must also reevaluate deploying his veep as bad cop. Although Biden still matches seniority with McCain enough to continue jabbing at the respected warrior (something Obama is wise to avoid), it won't work against Palin.

In coming days and weeks, expect to see a quieter, more self-deprecating, and even thoughtful-appearing Biden. And he’ll have to stay in character – remember how Gore creeped people out by changing his personality from debate to debate.

And Biden’s handlers have to keep the “I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do” Biden at bay (A fit of pique would be like throwing a Raggedy Andy made of lunch meat into the ring -- fifty on the bulldog, and pass the popcorn).

The likely fallback position for Biden is to emphasize his experience in general and foreign experience in particular. Prattling on about Nagorno-Karabakh and whatnot won’t move too many undecided voters, but it avoids the many disasters Biden could talk his way into.