Does Joe Biden Represent Real Change?

It seems to me Barack Obama has a VP problem. On the one hand, he can go to an older, more experienced, candidate in order to balance the ticket and shield him from the charge of inexperience. But any well-established politician is going to work against his basic theme so far, the one that got him the nomination: “real change.” Because he has stressed that message, he would open himself to charges of hypocrisy and to disillusionment among supporters.

He, can, on the other hand, go for another candidate who represents change. But if he does, he is doubling the inexperience problem, and making a ticket that could look positively lightweight. The charge of inexperience could sting, too—it is a charge already leveled against George W. Bush. Aren’t people liable to feel, especially if the economy is in trouble and if the nation is at war, that this is no time to experiment at the top?

Who’s he going to pick?

My wife offers a half-serious suggestion: “Oprah Winfrey.”