And Then There Were Two...

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are officially "The Dudes."
Wonderful intro, I know.

Throughout what has seemed like a million months of campaigning, we've seen Republicans and Democrats squashed by competition within their respective parties before John McCain and Barack Obama emerged as the main contenders for Commander-in-Chief. Then we had another waiting period, with plenty of speculation regarding the VP picks. I personally hoped for Romney and Jim Webb, but, surprisingly, we saw Palin and Biden tapped instead. Obama clearly made the wiser choice, as Biden's maturity, experience and traditional image balanced him out well. McCain seemed to have gone a similar route when selecting his running mate, but his choice... eh, not so great.

Sarah Palin burst on the scene as an attractive, well-spoken soccer-mom-turned-master-politician, showcasing her talent as an orator easily. After hearing her RNC speech, many, myself included, were swept up in the inexplicable hype surrounding Sarah Palin(although, yes, she was also groundbreaking for Republicans as the first woman on a presidential ticket). Then we stopped simply hearing and began to really listen, and a lot of her former admirers realized she wasn't really saying anything.

A couple of nice examples are:
-when asked to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with, Palin couldn't, even though the Supreme Court had ruled against her and Alaska in favor of Exxon-Mobil.
-when asked to name an American magazine, she couldn't, though she appeared on the covers of two major magazines just that week.

Incidents like this, allegations of her lack of experience and close examination of her integrity drastically damaged Palin's public image, though her charisma continued to draw enthusiastic crowds. Overall, though, it seemed that Palin's selection was nothing more than a cheap trick to get more people interested in the GOP, negatively impacting McCain's pubilc persona.

Moving back to Obama for a moment, excepting for a primary comment about Obama's lack of experience, he and Joe Biden presented a unified, balanced front, winning supporters, and, more importantly, keeping them, undoubtedly aiding in the win against John McCain.

Ergo, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are officially "The Dudes."