THE SMELL OF FEAR:

Obama has picked a Cheney when he needed a Gore (James Forsyth, 23rd August 2008, The Spectator)

Obama has picked a running mate to try and address one of his perceived weakness rather than doubling-down on his message of change. This is a mistake and suggests that after an awful August the Obama campaign is not as confident as it once was. [...]

Perhaps, the most interesting thing about the Biden pick is the question of whether the Obama campaign is now acting out of nerves or fear—most of the political class don’t think Obama would have picked Biden if the polls weren’t so close or if national security hadn’t so dominated the debate in the past few weeks. When a campaign starts chasing its tails as the Kerry and Gore ones ended up doing, it is in big trouble.