Posted by tangplay on 5/24/2020 12:42:00 PM (view original):
In fairness, Biden pledged to pick a woman, and likely a minority. It's difficult to buy the argument that his VP pick will have nothing to do with identity politics.
And it's probably true that Obama picked Biden in part because he appeals to old white guys who might have had a problem with Obama's race.
Sorry, but I don't buy the argument that identity politics didn't enter the equation here.
With Obama picking Biden, I think it was 75% the experience/moderate part, and 25% picking a white person. Also, I mean, what minority was he gonna pick for VP in 2008? There weren’t really a lot of options nationally, which is why I think making it a race issue misses the point - of course his VP was going to be white.
Biden pledging to pick a female of color for VP obviously is playing into identity politics, but he should - the base is diverse and the ticket should reflect that.