First off, congratulations to Sen. Biden, a safe choice for vice president, but one unlikely to swing many ballots excepting, of course, Delaware's three electoral votes.
There's no question the only VP choice that would have rallied the party big time is Hillary Clinton. So there must be some real bad blood between the Clintons and the Obamas, despite speeches by Bill and Hillary in Denver this week.
The challenge for Barack Obama now is to convince independent voters that he is not some far-left ideologue masquerading as a rock star politician. As the polls demonstrate, there is deep suspicion among many Americans about Sen. Obama because of his past votes and associations.
Obama gets that, and that's why he went with an establishment guy like Biden, who is a traditional liberal, not a netroots nut. Those netroots loons are arriving in Colorado and will damage Obama if they make spectacles of themselves. It's one thing to set up a nutty Web site where like-minded fanatics graze. It's quite another to be photographed doing anti-American stuff at the Democratic Convention.
It will be interesting to see how successful the Obama campaign will be in muting the loons. That includes people like DNC Chief Howard Dean. Time and time again, American voters have chosen traditional politicians for the top job, the exception being Bill Clinton.
Now we have a very liberal senator vying for the presidency and he has run into problems. This week is Barack Obama's big chance to regain momentum to persuade doubters that he is not a son of San Francisco, a cousin of George Soros, or a puppet of MoveOn. That is the drama here in Denver, and we, of course, will be charting the course to the very end.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
Over the years, we've criticize criticized The Denver Post for unfair coverage. That newspaper often leans left. But this morning The Post was very fair in the setup of the Democratic Convention, and so was Denver's competing newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News.
So for today, those people are patriots. All we ask is that the media be fair.
On the pinhead front, 50-year-old Madonna is on tour again, singing her little heart out, I assume. As part of her concert she uses a visual display that compares John McCain to Adolf Hitler. That is to provoke outrage and get publicity, of course.
Now, we expect this kind of dope dopey stuff from Madonna, who's shrewd but not very bright. But really, enough is enough, right? Madonna has gone over the borderline. She is a pinhead.
— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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