Some articles to check out today:

The Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman has a take on small-town folk based on Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention. I took huge offense at the idea that small-town people are somehow better than those of us who’ve lived in the cities (every place I’ve ever lived, except New Providence, NJ in my formative years, had a population of 45,000 or more). Chapman documents that, well, small towns have it just as rough as cities, and in some ways rougher.

And Michelle Cottle of The New Republic speculates on what new excuses Republicans will have for Palin's performance in interviews. It’s sounding like they’re gearing up to blame Gwen Ifill, because, after all, she’s writing a book that will include a chapter on Obama. I’m hoping Ifill will moderate drinking Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and wearing a big honkin’ scarf so we can see Michelle Malkin's head explode.

*****

Just bought my first presidential/vice-presidential bio of the campaign at Meijer today.: Joe Biden’s Promises to Keep. Having lost the “he doesn’t have enough experience” argument when Biden and Sarah Palin were nominated (Biden started in the Senate in 1973), the Republicans are now down to “he doesn’t have any executive experience” argument when talking about Biden. Sigh.

Biden’s had some tough times, too. Right after he was elected to the Senate (but before he took office), his wife and youngest daughter were killed in a car accident. He slogged through (he’s famous for taking Amtrak to and from his Delaware home every day), remarried, and had another child. I first took notice of him in 1986, in his reaction to Reagan’s policy of “constructive engagement” (i.e. do nothing for the foreseeable future) on South Africa’s apartheid government, when he dressed down Secretary of State George Schulz (it’s on the fourth page of this article). Apparently, this isn’t even mentioned in the book (which, by the way, really needs an index); apparently the Bork hearings were what led him to his first run for president, which got knocked out due to his plagiarizing Neil Kinnock in a speech. (What happened was he had quoted Kinnock many times before, didn’t cite him this one time, and the Dukakis camp got ahold of the video and released it to reporters.) As it turned out, Biden also had a brain aneuryism around this time, for which he underwent surgery the following year; if he’d still been campaigning there’s no doubt he would be dead now.

I’ve only read the prologue so far, but it seems pretty good. Biden’s a natural storyteller, and there’s no doubt he’s one of the brightest, most experienced guys in D.C. (even McCain acknowledges this). He also occasionally says something that, in retrospect, one wishes he hadn’t, but that’s the way it goes (who doesn’t do this?). I’d much rather have someone knowledgeable who says three dumb things a day than someone like the Republican nominee for VP, who, to me, is not qualified for the position and has said nothing of late to convince me otherwise.

Skipped over both of Obama’s books and didn’t see anything by McCain. The Sarah Palin book (it’s an unauthorized biography; Obama and Biden wrote their own books) is there, and it’s skimpy: only 160 pages with photos interspersed throughout. Biden’s book is over twice as long and costs less (what’s up with that, anyway?).