Opinion: In today’s pages: Joe Biden, the Democratic convention and consumer confidence
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The editorial board hasn’t decided yet whom to endorse in the 2008 presidential race, but it praises Barack Obama for selecting a running mate who appears up to the job. Yes yes, we know, Joe Biden hasn’t undergone the withering media scrutiny yet that will make us all loathe him by Election Day. The point here isn’t to judge Biden by policies or peccadilloes, but by stature:
We’re not so naive as to believe that electoral calculations played no part in this choice. But Biden passes the ‘ready on day one’ test better than most vice presidential candidates. Think of Dan Quayle, the telegenic but callow Indiana senator plucked from obscurity by George H.W. Bush to shore up the support of conservatives. Or Geraldine A. Ferraro, the obscure New York congresswoman selected by Walter F. Mondale because he believed a female running mate would energize a listless campaign.
Never afraid to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, the board rejects a proposal to provide public financing for candidates vying to be California’s top elections official, the Secretary of State, because of its inequitable funding source: higher fees on lobbyists. And it urges state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) to rescue a vital renewable-energy bill before the session ends.
Over in OpEdville, columnist Gregory Rodriguez shouts out a ‘Hell no, we won’t go!’ to the Democratic and Republican party conventions. His call for Americans to tune out and turn off is rooted in a more generalized contempt for the technology-fueled bogosity of contemporary life:
My revulsion for the conventions doesn’t stem simply from disdain for partisan politics. Nor am I suggesting that Americans ignore the substance of politics. But to my mind, conventions are emblematic of everything that’s wrong with American culture. For all our belief in freedom, which by definition breeds unpredictability, and our pride in our cultural dynamism, U.S. culture is becoming ever more self-conscious and scripted.
Also on the page, local radio host Barbara DeMarco-Barrett tells of a bike ride with her 13-year-old son. And Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, explores the psychology behind the public’s deep pessimism about the economy and discovers we’re acting like the yoked dog, not the control dog. Now that’s depressing.
The toothy photo of Joe Biden is by Emmanuel Dunand of AFP/Getty Images.