And not the one you think … If Barack Obama calls on U.S. Sen. Joe Biden to be his No. 2, Pennsylvania will have a native son on the ticket. Biden was born in Scranton and grew up there for 10 years before his family moved to Delaware.
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek lists three attributes (disguised as liabilities) Biden would bring to the Democratic ticket, but a major hurdle would be a lengthy voting record in the Senate. While this election marks the first time a sitting senator will be elected president since 1960, the long-standing wisdom is a senator has such a lengthy, convoluted voting record that can be sliced and diced in ways detrimental to his or her campaign. There are hundreds if not thousands of bills overloaded with pork barrel legislation and amendments and features for pet projects that a proposed law for say hospitals could also include provisions for things not related to health care. Remember John Kerry and the “I voted for it before I was against it” stumble. That’s what Kerry was talking about, and it undermined him.
