By Lahle Wolfe

Andrew is right: We elect more than just a president. As he points out we get stuck with, “influential advisors, staffers, cabinet members, and potentially meddling relatives, college buddies, lobbyists, hacks, hangers-on, and sordid skeletons in the closet,” as well.

However, to date, McCain is not offering any new or fresh approaches to problems largely brought about by a Bush administration he has strongly supported in the past. I doubt any of the cronies McCain would bring alongside would impress me, but at least his relatives could not be (much) worse than some other (current and past) presidents'.

Barack Obama chose a controversial vice president running mate. With recent polls showing insignificance in popularity, he can benefit from even more of the “overcoming personal tragedy and obstacle to rise to power” press that Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. can generate. While we may not want to elect “Bob the plumber” for president, we do like to hear about candidates who are real people and who have overcome their own personal struggles to rise to fame and power. Biden has overcome a lot and his personal story is compelling.

But Like McCain, Biden has been a loose cannon at times and his words have often come back to haunt him – including statements about African-Americans and Asian Indians. Perhaps Obama needed a vice president who could engage in heated debates and intelligently discuss domestic and foreign policies. Or, maybe he simply did not wish to alienate Hillary supporters by choosing Kathleen Sebelius, who would have been a better choice for tackling health care issues.

Obama was wise to chose Biden because the senator is already on a first-name basis with many foreign leaders (helping to address the concerns about Obama and our foreign policy) and because an endorsement from someone who once said, “"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man." could mean something to other Obama doubters. But maybe that’s a storybook, too.

And, perhaps one of the decisions to select Biden cleverly has less to do with the remark and more to do with Obama’s gracious and diplomatic response to the inflammatory comments of Senator Joe Biden. Obama remained stately and unflappable in his reply; a fine quality to have in a president: "He [Biden] called me. I told him it wasn't necessary. We have got more important things to worry about. We have got Iraq. We have got health care. We have got energy. This is low on the list."

Now those forgiven comments are once again high on the list. At least in terms of new fodder for the McCain campaign. But in politics, that is considered fair play. If you do not have anything nice to say, say something mean, or at least confusing.

Join the discussion on whether Joe Biden will help or hurt Obama in the elections in our Election Forum. 

This week's previous posts: The Real Campaign