I don’t know what ‘liberal’ is supposed to mean these days, but I always understood it as having something to do with the prioritisation of individual liberty (hence the etymology of the word). So when I heard Barack Obama’s new running mate summed up as ‘a liberal’ by the BBC last night, I did have to wonder.

Joe Biden supported the PATRIOT act, of all things. Now, admittedly he does want to restore the habeas corpus rights of detainees, but really – is that a specifically *liberal* position these days? It’s a central tenet of the US constitution, from which all US government officials, republican or democrat, (supposedly) derive their power. The constitution says: ‘The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.’  And let’s be clear, the USA have neither been invaded, nor have they revolted.

Joe Biden helped in the creation of the ‘drug czar’ position in government, and was the first to use the term in the US media. He considers illegal drug use ‘immoral’ and clearly believes that individuals should not have the right to choose what substances they consume.

Joe Biden says he supports a ‘woman’s right to choose’ an abortion, but is against public funding for them, because that would ‘impose a view’. He does not suggest how low-income women are to afford this choice (which can cost several thousand dollars).

Joe Biden authored a 1994 law which increased the number of offences eligible for the death penalty.

Maybe that’s what liberal means in America these days. Clearly the BBC thinks so.

The next answer the BBC gave to their question ‘Who is Joe Biden?’ was that he is ‘a critic of the Iraq war’.

They neglected to mention that he actually voted in favour of the Iraq war. And the Afghanistan war. In fact, it seems his main criticisms of the Iraq war have been that a) there aren’t enough countries fighting Iraq, b) there aren’t enough soldiers fighting Iraq, and c) Bush isn’t being honest about how long and expensive the war will be. Are those really qualifications for being ‘a critic of the Iraq war’? Seems like the BBC is misleading us here. It’s also worth noting that Biden has also called for more troops in Afghanistan. He’s also okay with US military action in Pakistan, and anywhere else deemed a ‘trouble spot’. (Some fussy people call that ‘imperialism’).

And despite failing to foresee the (actually-quite-easy-to-foresee) consequences of the Iraq war, the BBC and most other news sources describe him as ‘an expert on foreign policy’. This seems to be based on an underlying belief that there is, and/or should be, an elite, political class (a view which also seems to be evident in the media’s description of Biden as being ‘a Washington insider’). Yes, he is the chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, but does that immediately make him an ‘expert’? Is Bush the consummate statesman on account of his being the President? Recent policy decisions (i.e. the recent wars) would seem to contradict both those claims.

Also there’s this wonderful quote from Biden in 2007, describing, of all people, Barack Obama:

“[he is] the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”

Isn’t liberalism supposed to be somewhat at odds with racism? That said, there seems to be a lot of veiled racialised language in the mainstream media’s claim that Biden ‘balances out’ the Obama campaign.

So, maybe I’m just some extremely romantic idealist, some radical secular progressive, but Biden doesn’t meet my criteria for a liberal expert on foreign affairs.

He finished his speech the other day with the words ‘God bless America, and may he protect our troops’. Now that’s what I call change we can believe in.