Barack Obama went with what he thought was the smart, safe decision.  Taking a look at how both sides are reacting, you would think they were talking about two different VP nominees.  Listening to MSNBC, you get the impression that this was by the far the best decision Obama could have made, and now there’s balance to the ticket because of the experience and foreign policy credentials Biden brings to the table. 

Analyzing more closely, though, this may in fact backfire, in that it may serve to underscore Obama’s lack of experience.  Further, Obama has been prancing around the past year as the candidate of hope and change, but what kind of serious change can he bring to the table with a VP that has ten more years in Congress than Senator McCain? 

The announcement is still quite fresh, so all the talking heads haven’t had time to write some serious pieces on the matter, but we can still take a quick look around the net for some gems from the right’s finest…

Hugh Hewitt:

Obama had another terrible week.  His paean to the Chinese (he praised their “vastly superior” infrastructure on Thursday) his baffling equation of Russia’s rape of Georgia with America’s overthrow of Saddam, the new focus on his vote against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, his close ties with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and convicted felon Tony Rezko --all these things crowded in on him as he ran out of time to make a crucial decision.  Pushed to the wall, he picked an empty suit like himself, a nice enough fellow who has done one thing well in his entire life, which is win elections in Delaware.

For Obama, it is all about politics and words, elections and poses.  Slow Joe is the perfect running mate on a perfect ticket for a party betting on wind to solve the energy crisis.

Ed Morrissey on Biden’s lobbying ties (which is, obviously, right in line with Obama’s talking points):

How thoroughly did Barack Obama vet Joe Biden?  After months of demonizing lobbyists, Obama selected a running mate who has taken millions in contributions from those same lobbyists Obama supposedly eschewed, at least until the DNC started running out of money.  In fact, Biden’s son works as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, accruing the kind of earmarks that Obama has both decried and pursued…

Jonah Goldberg at The Corner:

I think it is an outright terrible decision on Obama’s part to pick Biden. Yes, he helps balance Obama’s inexperience on foreign policy, but he also reminds people of it.  Yes, Biden could conceivably be effective as an attack dog. But Biden is such a gasbag he makes the Hindenburg look like a sack of rocks. Obama doesn’t need to increase his lip-flapping quotient. Biden is a gaffe machine and Obama is bad explaining faults, and his VP’s faults will inevitably become Obama’s in the Fall campaign. Biden will be fantastic at convincing people already eager to vote for Obama to vote for Obama. His ability to convince the undecided is much, much weaker, in my opinion. There’s more than a small risk that Biden will reinforce the sense that this ticket is all about hearing itself talk. I wouldn’t be surprised, two months from now, that we’ll hear a lot of talk about how Obama’s mistake in picking Biden can be explained by Obama’s inherent weakness, and love, for talky-talk-talk.

And just for kicks, here’s Joe Biden discussing the impossibility of going to a 7-11 or Dunkin’ Donuts without an Indian accent:

Nice.  There’s plenty more of that to come.