Millions have hoped against hope that Barack Obama represents real change. But these sincere hopes were dealt another blow with the selection of Senator Joseph Biden from Delaware as Obama’s vice presidential running mate. Biden has had a long career in politics, and is often portrayed as a “liberal.” However, a brief look at his policies only goes to show the sorry state that bourgeois liberalism finds itself in!

Although, like Obama, Biden disagrees with McCain on how best to continue U.S. imperialism’s domination of the Middle East, he has since the begining been a vocal supporter of the wars and occupations of both Afghanistan and Iraq. For example, he voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, which gave Bush a free hand to start the Iraq War. Biden favors “internationalizing the war” and increasing the number of soldiers, as well as continuing massive funding.  His main criticism of Bush is that he hasn’t been honest enough about how long and difficult the war will be.

An opponent of withdrawing the troops from Iraq, Biden favors partitioning Iraq into a loose federation of ethnic states with separate regions for the Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis, something akin to the disaster that took place in the former Yugoslavia. Biden was instrumental in the 1999 U.S.-NATO war against Yugoslavia under the Clinton administration. His “lift and strike” resolution combined sales of arms to the region with the massive bombing campaign that took place.

Biden is also responsible for legislation that allocated of nearly $10 billion to fund the prison industry. The legislation cut higher education access for inmates, added many extensions of the death penalty, and even initiated so-called “boot camps” for minors. This approach is precisely the opposite of what is needed to address the problems poor workers and youth, and particularly minority youth face daily. Rather, it is a compounding of the problem.

And in a serious a twist of irony, Biden in 2003 attempted to convince John Kerry to offer the VP slot to John McCain! This only goes to show just how indistinguishable the two corporate parties really are! It calls to the mind the famous line by Groucho Marx: “These are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.” Now, as Biden has become hyper critical of McCain, his political opportunism is clear, which is not saying much since Joe Biden is also big fan of the right wing British Labour Party figure Neil Kinnock, whom he even plagiarized a speech from.

In short, far from having anything to do with “change,” Biden represents more of the same.