Benny's World: Will Progressives' "Happiness Be a Thing Called Joe"?

As the media stayed up most of the night to get a simple text message from Barack Obama's campaign about his VP candidate, I never doubted it would be anyone else (well, I take that back, I was concerned Chet Edwards was really being considered) but a guy named Joe Biden.

Joe Biden is a very down to earth politician who no doubt will tell Obama what he thinks. The good thing about Joe though is that he's experienced enough now that if Obama chooses not to accept his suggestions, Joe can roll with him.

Obama needed someone who could help his message connect to the lunchbuckets and to swing voters--Catholics-and Joe will work with Obama well in that regard. Note: Biden is one of the least wealthy senators. His wife is a teacher and a mental health advocate. Joe also has foreign policy credentials that actually put him on par with McCain, and McCain is going to have to figure out how to compete with Obama without competing with Joe Biden. That will be interesting.

Hopefully, the crowd in Springfield today will walk away with the feeling that "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe", which is a title of a real song. You can type in www.joebiden.com in the brower and get a redirect to a form from Barack Obama's site to welcome Joe Biden to the team. (That's probably why Obama waited so late to announce--they had to get the technical stuff ready--in addition to ramping up more publicity for the campaign.)

Otherwise, here's Audra McDonald's rendition of Harold Arlen's memorable song from the musical, Cabin in the Sky. Harold Arlen also wrote my very favorite song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", something we all could use after a disasterous 8 years under the Bush administration.