Of all the potential vice presidents that Obama could have chosen, Biden is an interesting choice. Yet, what Biden brings to the political table may not be the most important as the way he massages Obama's image.
To analyze this and understand what's going on frontstage as compared to what is really happening backstage, first you have to understand who we are as Americans.
In the hiring of a person for a job, Americans love to believe that the "best (wo)man is selected for the job." But in reality, often, there are several candidates that are equal-to-the-job and any one of them would do just fine. In other words, the final selection for a position within a company is often based on preference--hence the interview process that takes place after all the choicest resumes have been set aside.
The same premise can be applied Obama's running mate selection.
If a number of candidates were equal to job of vice president then why would Obama pick Biden of the big mouth? Why choose a man for Vice President who's made questionable racial remarks about more than one ethnic group? Of course, someone with 35 years in Washington is bound to have made a racial remark or several over the years--as racial attitudes have changed a bit. But Biden was racially insulting (entirely unconsciously I'm sure) when he announced his bid for president in this presidential cycle.
Yes, Biden's charismatic. And he's had ideas for peace in Iraq that seem to make sense. However, his ideas (if not his charisma) would be useful whether or not he was Vice President. So the question remains: Why choose a running mate who's made a racial remark based on ideas buried so deep in the white America's racial consciousness that they don't understand that the word "articulate" was the cake of the insult and "clean" was the icing that proved the cake's existence?
I don't know why, but I have a theory. And I believe that Joe Biden's racial remark may be the very thing that gave him the edge over the other Vice Presidential hopefuls.
Obama's presidential race, racially speaking, is primarily about winning over the white vote. And this part of the race requires that Obama overcome two subgroups. He has to win over the whites who think a black man may not be as competent as a white one. And he was to win over the whites who don't believe that racism is a significant factor in various ethnic groups lives and that anyone who dares to disagree is (oh-so-sadly) mistaken, obsessed, and or making excuses for personal failures.
Selecting Joe Biden tells this section(s) of white America that Obama, while black, doesn't think absolutely 'everything is about race.' The action of selecting Biden for running mate announces Obama's racial neutrality more loudly than words ever could. And it does so in such a way so as not to offend non-whites...mostly. Furthermore, Obama comes out looking magnanimous.
If this theory of mine is even partially true, this would tend to mean that Barack Obama is about to make the much touted political prowess of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan look like amateur hour.
This would also mean that Obama has no business being in a dead heat with a man that stumbles over what it is he's saying fifty percent of the time and can't remember how many houses he owns.
