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In about a month, we will not only have a new President, but a new Vice President as well. The office of Vice President has been largely shaped by the person who occupied it in recent years. Incoming Vice President Joe Biden says he will not be the kind of Vice Presidenmt that Dick Cheney has been. Biden thinks Cheney had an overly expansive view of the role of the Vice President. Many have alleged that Cheney created a kind of shadow government inside the White House. Biden says he’s going to be an adviser to the president and a member of the president’s team, and that’s all.

When Franklin Roosevelt was President, he had three vice presidents. John Nance Garner, from 1933 to 1941, Henry Wallace from 1941-1945, and finally Harry S. Truman, who succeeded him upon FRD’s death. Roosevelt had little to do with any of these men. They were kept in the dark, and seldom were involved in decisions of state. Truman, for example, had no idea that the United States was developing an atomic weapon, until after Roosevelt died.

Dwight Eisenhower dispatched Richard Nixon as his administration’s chief political voice, and a primary ambassador abroad. John Kennedy didn’t like and didn’t trust Lyndon Johnson, so he kept him close at hand. Richard Nixon allowed Spiro Agnew to take on his enemies, and later Gerald Ford pardoned him when he resigned the presidency. There followed several vice presidents whose roles were fairly sedate. Dick Cheney was a very different kind of Vice President. Now Joe Biden plans to fade into the woodwork, playing behind Barack Obama. That’s probably a good thing. I think Joe Biden may well rival Dan Quayle when it comes to quotable gaffes. He may be a lesser power behind the throne, but he’s definitely going to be entertaining.

President Elect Barack Obama promised change. He was elected, apparently because voters had had enough of the Bush administration, and looked forward to a new direction that Obama said would come, if he were to occupy the White House.

So far, that new direction is hard to identify, since most of the president elect’s appointees to key positions in his new administration are just recycled Bill Clinton personnel.

Look at all the Democrats who worked for President Clinton. Note too, that many of these selections did not endorse Barack Obama in the primaries.

Obama’s Transition Chief is John Podesta, the former Clinton Chief of Staff. Representative Rahm Emanuel will be Obama’s White House chief of staff. He was a high level Clinton advisor and operative. Ron Klain, soon to be Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, held the same post under Al Gore. Hillary Rodham Clinton looks like the next Secretary of State. Word is she has accepted the appointment. Eric Holder was the number two lawyer in the Clinton Justice Department. Now he is going to be Attorney General. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is slated to become the next Commerce Secretary. He was U.N. Ambassador in Bill Clinton’s administration.

What is supposed to be a new and bold departure from politics as usual inside the beltway, looks an awful lot like politics as usual. Barack Obama’s new appointee acorns haven’t fallen far, it appears, from the Bill Clinton oak tree. So far, Barack Obama’s first term, filled will all these familiar faces, looks an awful lot like a third Bill Clinton term. So much for “change.”

What is that old saying about expecting a different outcome from doing the same old thing?

At a Seattle fund-raiser last weekend, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden made an interesting, if not disturbing observation.

“Mark my words,” Biden said, “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember, I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

Biden added these words about his running mate: “He’s going to have to make some really tough - I don’t know what the decision’s going to be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it’s going to happen.”

Biden said he could envision four or five scenarios that might arise to challenge the new president, citing Russia or the Middle East as possible sources of trouble.

Biden then called on the donors at the fund raiser to be prepared to “rise to Mr. Obama’s defense because he will need to make some difficult and unpopular choices in response.” Joe Biden did not specify what those choices might be. Might it be another war? Did he mean that martial law might have to be imposed here at home? Did he mean that Obama might step away from support of Israel? Biden did not elaborate.

What’s disturbing is that Biden believes Obama will be tested. That suggests that our enemies view him differently than they do John McCain. It is unlikely that our enemies would risk testing McCain. It also suggests that our enemies might think they could enjoy some advantage over the United States with Barack Obama in the White House.

They might be thinking that he’s soft and his inexperience will lead to errors that will enure to the benefit of those who wish us harm.

With less than a month before the country selects a new president, national polls show John McCain slipping. The better than expected performance of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in last week’s debate with Senator Joe Biden appears to have helped to slow what looked to be perhaps insurmountable momentum, but the road to the White House for the McCain-Palin ticket remains steep.

Supporters are saying that tonight’s debate could be a critical moment. If John McCain doesn’t sway some doubters, it could be all but over. Others are saying that four weeks in a political campaign season that has been filled with the unexpected, means it’s entirely possible there’s more that is unexpected to come. In any event, tonight’s debate must go well for McCain.

He must do what he did not do in his first encounter with a confident and capable Barack Obama. He must go on the offensive. He must look Obama in the eye, and he must confront the Democrat with many of Obama’s most vulnerable shortcomings….issues that the mainstream press has succeeded in blacking out during most of the post-convention period. This approach is risky, and for it to work, it must be carried out with precision.

McCain is a risk-taker, and he knows the stakes are high. He also knows that unless he does this, his base in several key states will likely drift away.

McCain is no longer playing for the hearts and minds of voters in states where his party has experienced mixed luck in national elections. He actually can afford to cast off Michigan, as he did last week. He must now assure that states that have taken his party to victory in the past, are there for him on November 4th. McCain needs Florida, Ohio, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Missouri and Nevada. If they come through for McCain, he will score a narrow Electoral College win, even if he loses the popular vote.

If any of them don’t he’s finished.

The good news is that these states historically have come through for Republican tickets. If they do this time, McCain will win a thin Electoral College vote of 274-264. There are few other scenarios that will result in a Republican victory.

Governor Sarah Palin didn’t win the debate last night. Neither did Senator Joe Biden, but there was a clear winner, and it was Sarah Palin.

If that sounds confusing, let me explain.

Joe Biden, a 30-plus year Washington insider took on an opponent with less than five weeks in the so-called big leagues, and in many ways she cleaned his clock. She didn’t out-fact him, but she decidedly connected with voters in a way that all his experience and formidable credentials couldn’t match.

She demonstrated that she knows enough about the capitol political game to know that the American people are tired of slick talk, and mind-boggling figures, so she confidently told Senator Biden, and veteran Washington media insider, Gwen Ifill that she might not give them the answers they wanted from her, but she would offer talk straight to the viewers who tuned in. And that’s exactly what she did. She had more than competent command of the issues. She wasn’t expected to display that kind of knowledge. She understood the objectives of the McCain campaign, the shortcomings of the Obama campaign, and the fundamental differences between the tickets. She gave no quarter. She held her own and she even topped Biden on several topics.

Some will dismiss Governor Palin by claiming that the bar wasn’t as high for her as it was for Sen. Biden. That’s nonsense. The bar was higher. She had to go toe to toe with her opponent and lose no ground, and she had to convince her questioning base and independents, that she was no burden to John McCain. She more than accomplished both of those objectives.There was no knockout punch thrown in the debate by either side, and that alone is evidence of Palin’s success.

Sarah Palin was the underdog, but she beat the spread, and silenced the doubters.

In other words she won.

Sarah Palin really doesn’t want to entertain the media as she meets with several world leaders in New York this week.

Palin got a passport just last year. Before this week, she had not previously met with any international leaders. By the end of this day, the Republican vice presidential nominee will complete meetings with seven foreign heads of state. She began with a half-hour session with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe Tuesday. The McCain campaign has arranged Palin’s visits with these foreign leaders during the United Nation’s annual General Assembly.

The plan is to give her exposure to foreign policy in advance of her October 2nd debate with her vice presidential opponent, Senator Joe Biden.

The media wanted in on these meetings, but only a pool camera crew from CNN and some still photographers were admitted. There was much Media grousing about not being invited to attend Palin’s briefings. Some networks and newspapers actually threatened not to cover the meetings. The reason the media were restricted is because the McCain campaign knew these media vipers, most of whom are already in the tank for Barack Obama, only wanted to catch Sarah Palin in a mistake.

These so-called “reporters” who followed Barack Obama to Europe like it was the second coming, and made his first meetings with world leaders seem like a gift to world peace, only wanted to capture an embarrassing moment, if there was one. It turns out there were none.

The left-tilting mainstream media has been upset that the McCain campaign has not made Palin available to reporters for questions. Since the nomination of Alaska’s governor as John McCain’s running mate, she has given two network TV interviews, and will soon do another with CBS, but shehas held no news conferences.

The fact that Barack Obama has held no general question news conference in many months doesn’t seem to bother the media.

The media will discount any value in the meetings Palin has had with foreign leaders. They’re already saying they don’t improve her stature. Clearly the campaign coverage double standard remains inplace.

The 2008 presidential election is extraordinary in many respects. An African American man is at the top of the Democratic ticket, while a woman will become the first female vice president of the republicans win. Perhaps overshadowed by the makeup of the two tickets is the fact that for the first time since 1952, no sitting president or vice president is on the November ballot.

This fact alone demonstrates the importance of the three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate coming up later this month and next. Away from carefully-crafted and choreographed public appearances, John McCain and Barack Obama will be seen for the first time one-on-one. Their demeanor and respective qualifications will be open for direct scrutiny from the public, without spin doctors remanufacturing their every comment, (although that sort of thing will surely follow each debate).

While I am not entirely pleased with lack of balance in the selection of moderators by the Commission on Presidential debates, there will be a single moderator in each confrontation, not panel of self-important reporters. There will be more time for the candidates to expand upon their respective points of view on the issues, but make no mistake, what each says will have been carefully rehearsed to create the best possible sound bites that will be repeated for days thereafter by the media.

The candidates will be able to confront each other if the opportunity arises, but such confrontation carries high risk. Still there are substantial differences on issues between Obama and McCain and between Palin and Biden. Millions will be watching and wishing that there had been many more debates, not just the few that usually take place. The stakes are very high. These debates could be the whole ballgame.

A Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday found that 51 percent of voters believe that the media is trying to hurt the Alaska governor with its coverage — and 24 percent say that makes them more likely to support the Republican ticket.

This revelation is troubling for the campaign of Barack Obama whose interests the vicious media have been trying to advance.

Republicans, along with many observers with no real ax to grind, accuse the media of unfair, even sexist, coverage in their attacks upon Palin’s experience and qualifications. Issues have been raised about the Republican vice presidential nominee that would never be raised if she were a man.

This treatment has angered women. Whether Republican, Democrat or independent, media treatment of Sarah Palin has struck a negative chord, except those women who are farthest to the left.

Joe Biden lost his wife some years ago. He was a single parent and a U.S. Senator. He was praised by Democrats as a man who took the Amtrak home to Delaware from Washington each night to be there for his family. Sarah Palin is a mother of five, and the Governor of Alaska. Her family lives in the Governor’s mansion with her, and yet we are to believe that she should not be trying to balance her political career and her families interests, because she just can’t do both.

As proof, the sniping media points to her 17 year old daughter’s pregnancy, and suggests it’s evidence of her mother’s upside down priorities.

I don’t care who you are, or what your political persuasion might be….this kind of ugly, sexist double standard should make you angry, and apparently, it is.

The selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has shaken up the 2008 campaign for president.

It obviously stunned the Obama campaign. A spokesman issued the following statement within moments of the announcement on Friday:

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

Obviously this political hack didn’t mention that Palin is a well-respected governor, but consider that being mayor of a town of 9,000 is decidedly more actual governing experience than Barack Obama brings to the table.

Then there was the following observation from New York Senator Chuck Schumer:

“After the great success of the Democratic convention, the choice of Sarah Palin is surely a Hail Mary pass. It is a real role of the dice and shows how John McCain, Karl Rove et al realize what a strong position the Obama-Biden team and Democrats in general are in…in this election.”

Schumer railed on:

“Certainly the choice of Palin puts to rest any argument about inexperience on the Democratic team and while Palin is a fine person, her lack of experience makes the thought of her assuming the presidency troubling.”

Schumer, of course, finds no problems with his party’s presidential candidate’s qualifications, even though his resume is clearly thinner by far.

No matter how Democrats try to dismiss the choice of Sarah Palin, John McCain did what Barack Obama failed to do. He offered the millions of women voters in America, recognition that they matter, and a choice they would not otherwise have had in November.