[MRM]

This choice has gotten curiouser and curiouser. Something went wrong with Obama's choice and timing. I would love to know what happened. His publicly announced plan was to milk the announcement for all the press he could get, and then announce his choice late at night, just before the newspaper deadline, and then get two days' coverage before the weekend, where he would be the main talking point for the heads on TV.

Instead we get Biden, who publicly denied that he was the pick less than a week ago, being annonced on a Friday night - which is the time usually reserved for dumping news that is bad but will inevitably get out.

At first blush Biden is a bad choice and the whole build up makes Obama seem too cute by half. Obama is supposed to be the fresh new face who's a different kind of politician. Obama needed to select someone who reinforced his brand but still gave comfort of diverse experience. Bill Clinton is a good example. In '92 and he purposely picked a young Al Gore to reinforce his youthfull insurgent candidacy, even though Gore brought no regional balance to the ticket and couldn't deliver his own state. Biden does just the oposite to Obama. He makes Obama look like an old-style, cynical beltway politician. McCain would pick Tom Ridge in a heartbeat if he could get away with it. He would be the perfect anti-Biden.