Reasoning for the Right 1

http://mediamatters.org/items/200808270024

In a recent episode of The O'Reilly Factor, criticism came up against Senator (now presidential contender) Obama for choosing Joe Biden as a running mate. Fox News contributor Dick Morris responded, "No. He'll just talk about what a wonderful guy Biden is. But when you think about it, who's Joe Biden? He ran 20 years ago for president. He only got into the race this time because of a menopausal midlife crisis. He was leaving the Senate, and he figured, 'I'll just do one more shot and run for president before I fade from the scene.'

Later on, Biden speculated that questions as to "Why Biden?" would be more double-talk about how great the candidate is.

Here's the flaw in that logic, and why it's circular.

Let's say that you are in a coffee shop, and you are waiting in line trying to decide what coffee to have. You know that you have a doughnut waiting for you back at your desk, so you have to choose the perfect coffee to complement this breakfast choice. Now, you have several different choices as they all have a good record of satisfying your taste buds in the past, but you decide to go with the aged Breakfast Blend, which has the well-balanced medium bodied taste.

When you go up to the cashier, the guy behind you says, "Why'd you pick that coffee?"

When you say, "It's a great coffee; I mean, it's the perfect coffee for me."

Then, they reply, "That's ridiculous, double-talk banter. What's the real reason?"

It's just like that for Sen. Obama. Biden has the experience that Obama lacks (which seems to cause him to suffer a bit in the polls and is the largest criticism against him). Also, Biden is someone not terribly showy; a guy who wouldn't overshadow the senator. He is the macaroni to Obama's cheese, the ketchup to the mustard, and (yes, absolutely) the black to Obama's white (or vice versa).

So, why didn't Obama choose Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his running mate? First of all, they wouldn't have fit together... two major candidates going together in a contest of egos wouldn't have worked at all. It would have come off as a consolation prize, and it wouldn't have united the party like one would think. Plus, there are a lot of misconceptions and strong opinions against Sen. Clinton.

Besides all that, the camps were at each others throats during the primaries, and meshing the two would be like mixing oil and water. Hillary will probably try again someday to run for president, and maybe the next time she'll be closer than now.

In this blogger's opinion, Sen. Clinton is probably working strategy for her next senatoral election. Maybe she's giving up on politics (though, it remains doubtful). In her address, she seemed like she was ready to be done with the big race, for now.

Who wouldn't be with all the mudslinging in the media, stumping, and campaigning?

However, we've strayed from the point. The bottom line is it can be perfectly acceptable to say the reason you picked a candidate is because they're great. There isn't any circular reasoning to this logic at all. (We'll call it the "He is what he is, and that's great." argument.)