Like many people I wondered if Joe Biden was a good choice for Barack Obama. However after reading a CNN article which analyzes the first national poll taken after Obama’s selection of Biden I don't think so. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/24/election.2008.poll/index.html

Obama's poll numbers have gone down from 51%-44% a month ago, to where the current poll shows Obama tied at 47%-47% with John McCain. While granting that all of that slippage cannot be tied to the selection of Joe Biden, the choice of Biden certainly didn't move Obama up in the latest poll.

So what are some of the problems with Obama's choice? First of all Joe Biden is not Hillary Clinton and to a lot of Hillary supporters, not having chosen her is a problem. Interestingly the percent of Hillary supporters who are planning to vote for Obama has gone down, from 75 percent of Hillary supporters at the end of June who planned to support Obama to only 66 percent today. There is no way that Obama can win if only two in three Hillary supporters vote for him in November. If Obama doesn't get more Hillary voters in his camp, it will be hello President McCain.

Another problem is Obama did not choose a woman. To many women who want the women's cause to move forward this is another blow. If Obama didn't pick Hillary as his running mate, he still could have showed women how he cared about their advancement by picking another woman as his Vice Presidential candidate, such as Kathleen Sebellus. The choice of Biden doesn't show feminists that Obama is thinking of them as a priority.

Another reason the selection of Joe Biden doesn’t really help Obama  is that Biden comes from Delaware, a state that is already solidly Democratic. The selection of Biden doesn’t add to the potential electoral map for Obama by putting into play another state which has been traditionally Republican in Presidential elections, such as the selection of Evan Bayh might have done with Indiana. The selection of Biden to beef up the Obama ticket’s  foreign policy credentials, rather than selecting a candidate with a fresher face who more clearly represents a change in the Washington status quo can be seen as a sign of weakness for the Obama campaign.

Another problem with the selection of Joe Biden are the harsh words that Biden said during the primaries about Obama’s lack of qualifications to be President,which Republicans wasted no time trotting out in political ads which were aired within 24 hours of the selection of Biden by Obama.

Also Biden voted for the war in Iraq and has been a Senator in Washington for nearly 36 years. For a candidate like Obama who ran as being against the Iraq war from the beginning and representing change in the political process, the selection of Biden creates a conflict in message for the Obama campaign. Although whenever people say Obama represents change, I have always wondered what kind of change? What I envision as change may not be what you envision as change. Finally how does the selection of an experienced Washington insider like Biden supposedly fit into the Obama message of change?

Some of the things the media is saying that Joe Biden brings to the table, I disagree with. For example, the media talks about Biden as being working class. While he may be the poorest member of the Senate that hardly makes him working class.

Also the media keeps talking about Biden’s Pennsylvania connection. While Biden was born and raised in Pennsylvania for some time as a child, as far as I know he hasn’t lived there in a long time. If you live stop living in a place for decades, in my opinion you are no longer in the loop of what is going on there.Places change, they aren't static.

The media has made a lot of Joe Biden being Catholic. Just because Biden is Catholic doesn't mean he can carry the Catholic vote for the Obama campaign, which voters Obama has had problems attracting to date. Hillary Clinton did very well with Catholic voters and she is a Methodist.

The selection by Obama of a Catholic running mate like Biden as his Vice Presidential candidate still may not cause a Catholic or working class voter to vote for Obama at the top of the ticket, epecially if those voters still remember Obama’s characterization of them as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion.