Hedging your bets

Various media types have called Sen John McCain's selection of Gov Palin as 'going all in' or 'doubling down'. Both are gambling metaphors, and I think both are accurate. Gov Palin will likely be either a home run or a dud. That is the essence of going 'all in'.

Contrast that with Sen Obama's pick of Sen Biden. Rather than all in, or even mostly in, Joe Biden is hedging his bets to ensure a win-win scenario. Joeseph R. Biden, candidate for Vice President of the United States, is the very same Joseph R. Biden who is running reelection to the US Senate from Delaware.

So if Obama/Biden win the election, he becomes VP and by the constitution must resign his Senate seat before taking the oath of office. The vacant senate seat is filled by the governor of Delaware, Democrat Ruth Ann Minner. Thus, the senate seat stays in Democrat hands.

If Obama/Biden lose the election, Sen Biden, having run for reelection in a safe Democrat district (safe enough that he's been in the Senate since 1972) stays a US Senator. Thus, he can 'fall back' on his day job, which pays $169,300 per year.

If Biden is confident in his chances to be elected VP, he could demonstrate that confidence by withdrawing from the Senate reelection bid. Otherwise he is subverting the very bedrock principle of our system of government. He is asking Delaware voters to vote for him fully expecting that he will not serve in the office he is elected to. He is, in essence, running a campaign by proxy for whomever the Delaware Governor will choose.

I'm not a voter from Delaware, but if I was, I would be insulted by Sen Biden's Senate campaign. I would want to walk into the voting booth knowing who my choices were. Perhaps Sen Biden's name should have an asterisk next to it to indicate that a replacement would be forthcoming. Taken to the extreme, Sen Biden's proxy campaign could be the blueprint for otherwise unelectable candidates to hold office. Does anyone not think that George Soros and the DailyKos crowd are already fighting over Sen Biden's replacement to the Senate?

How does Senator George Soros sound?