Oh, it's Biden...yawn. Well, yes, but

The accepted view on the blogosphere, exemplified at Kos, seems to be that Obama's choice of Biden as his VP is 'plugging a gap' and not 'reinforcing the message', and so is disappointing because of that. I'm not convinced. I do think Biden is the safe choice, and so to that extent feel let down. But can one really argue that Obama needs his message 'reinforced'? He and the 'change' chorus has saturated the media - seven Time covers in one year! - and the danger he now faces, it seems to me, is cynicism (he's all hot air) and boredom (not him again). In this light, 'reinforcing the message' is precisely what he doesn't need to do. But that doesn't mean that the windbag Biden is unalloyed good news - clearly anyone who has been found to have stolen passages from Neil Kinnock's speeches can't be described as that - nor that there wasn't a real third choice of surprising us, and strengthening an underplayed part of his ticket. Al Gore, anyone?