WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware to be his running mate, turning to a leading authority on foreign policy and a longtime Washington hand to fill out the Democratic ticket, Mr. Obama announced in text and e-mail messages early Saturday.
Mr. Obama’s selection ended a two-month search that was conducted almost entirely in secret. It reflected a critical strategic choice by Mr. Obama: To go with a running mate who could reassure voters about gaps in his résumé, rather than to pick someone who could deliver a state or reinforce Mr. Obama’s message of change.
Mr. Biden is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is familiar with foreign leaders and diplomats around the world. Although he initially voted to authorize the war in Iraq — Mr. Obama opposed it from the start — Mr. Biden became a persistent critic of President George W. Bush’s policies in Iraq.
The brief text message from the Obama campaign came about 3 a.m., less than three hours after word of the decision had begun leaking out. “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!”
His e-mail announcement began: “Friend — I have some important news that I want to make official. I’ve chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.”
The selection was disclosed as Mr. Obama moves into a critical part of his campaign, preparing for the party’s four-day convention in Denver starting on Monday. Mr. Obama’s aides viewed the introduction of his vice presidential choice — including an afternoon rally Saturday at the old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., the same place where Mr. Obama announced his candidacy on a freezing winter morning almost two years ago — and a tour of swing states as the beginning of a week-long stretch in which Mr. Obama hopes to dominate the stage and position himself for the fall campaign.
Word of Mr. Obama’s decision leaked out hours before his campaign had been scheduled to inform supporters via text and e-mail message, and hours after informing two other top contenders for the vice presidential nomination — Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia — that they had not been chosen.
As the selection process moved to an end, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, whom Mr. Obama had defeated in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, had slipped out of contention — to the degree that Mr. Obama had never seriously considered her.
Mr. Biden is Roman Catholic, giving him appeal to that important voting bloc, though he favors abortion rights. He was born in a working-class family in Scranton, Pa., a swing state where he remains well-known. Mr. Biden is up for re-election to the Senate this year and he would presumably run simultaneously for both seats.
Mr. Biden is known for being both talkative and prone to making the kind of statements that get him in trouble. In 2007, when he was competing for Mr. Obama for the presidential nomination, he declared that Mr. Obama was “not yet ready” for the presidency.
The McCain campaign jumped on that early Saturday, as it responded to the selection, offering a glimpse into the line of criticism that awaits the Democratic ticket.
“There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama’s lack of experience than Joe Biden. Biden has denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing — that Barack Obama is not ready to be President,” said Ben Porritt, a spokesman for Mr. McCain.
Although Mr. Biden is not exactly a household name, he is probably the best known of all the Democrats who were in contention for the spot, given his political and personal history (not to mention his regular appearances on the Sunday morning television news shows). He first ran for the Senate from Delaware when he was just 29.
Mr. Biden has run twice for the presidency himself, in 1988 and again in 2008, dropping out early in both cases. He was also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during two of the most contentious Supreme Court nomination battles of the past 50 years: the confirmation proceedings for Robert H. Bork, who was defeated, and Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed after an explosive hearing in which Anita Hill had accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment. Mr. Biden led the opposition to both nominations, although he came under criticism from some feminists for not immediately disclosing what were at first Ms. Hill’s closed-door accusations against Mr. Thomas.
Mr. Obama’s choice of Mr. Biden suggested some of the weaknesses the Obama campaign is trying to address at a time when national polls suggest that his race with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is tightening.
Chief among Mr. Biden’s strengths is his familiarity with foreign policy and national security issues, highlighted just this past weekend with the invitation he received from the embattled president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, to visit Georgia in the midst of its tense faceoff with Russia. From the moment he dropped out of the presidential race, he had been mentioned as a potential Secretary of State should either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton win the election.
He is also something of a fixture in Washington, and would bring to the campaign — and the White House — a familiarity with the way the city and Congress works that Mr. Obama cannot match after his relatively short stint in Washington.
At 65, Mr. Biden adds a few years and gray hair to a ticket that otherwise might seem a bit young (Mr. Obama is 47). He is, as Mr. Obama’s advisers were quick to argue, someone who appears by every measure prepared to take over as president, setting a standard that appears intended to at least somewhat hamstring Mr. McCain should he be tempted to go for a more adventurous choice for No. 2.
He has a long history of making statements that get him in trouble. He was forced to apologize to Mr. Obama almost the moment he entered the race for president after he was quoted as describing Mr. Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” a remark that drew criticism for being racially insensitive. While campaigning in New Hampshire, Mr. Biden said that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
Mr. Biden quit the presidential race this year after barely making a mark; he came in fifth in Iowa. He was forced to quit the 1988 presidential race in the face of accusations that he had plagiarized part of a speech from Neil Kinnock, the British Labor Party leader. Shortly afterward, he was found to have suffered two aneurysms.
He is also, at least arguably, a Washington insider, having worked there for so long, though he still commutes home to Wilmington every night by train.
The choice by Mr. Obama in some ways mirrors the choice by Mr. Bush of Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000; at his age, it appears unlikely that Mr. Biden would be in a position to run for president should Mr. Obama win and serve two terms. Shorn of any remaining ambition to run for president on his own, he could find himself in a less complex political relationship with Mr. Obama than most vice presidents have with their presidents.
Mr. Biden was born in Scranton, grew up in the suburbs of Wilmington, Del., and went to Syracuse Law School. As a young man, he was in the center of a gripping family drama: barely a month after he was elected to the Senate, his wife and their three children were in a car accident with a drunken driver resulted in the death of his wife and daughter. His two sons survived, and Mr. Biden remarried five years later.
Carl Hulse and Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting.
Obama picks Biden as running mate
 Mr Obama could benefit from Biden's foreign policy clout, analysts say |
US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has announced that Senator Joe Biden will be his running mate in November's election.
Mr Obama's choice, confirmed on his website and with a text message to supporters, comes ahead of next week's Democratic Party convention.
Mr Biden, a 65-year-old veteran lawmaker, is highly respected on foreign policy issues.
Republican contender John McCain could announce his choice next week.
Speculation is mounting that Senator McCain may name his running mate on 29 August, his 72nd birthday and a day after the Democrats wrap up their convention in Denver, Colorado.
Mr Obama and Mr Biden are due to appear together as running mates for the first time at a rally which has got under way in Springfield, Illinois.
'Impressive record'
The announcement came shortly after several US media networks began reporting that Mr Biden had been chosen.
 |   |
"Barack has chosen Joe Biden to be his running mate," a brief statement on Mr Obama's campaign website said.
"Joe Biden brings extensive foreign policy experience, an impressive record of collaborating across party lines, and a direct approach to getting the job done," it said.
Mr Biden has represented the state of Delaware in the US Senate since 1972.
| JUSTIN WEBB'S AMERICA   Joe Biden is Vladimir Putin's contribution to American politics  |
He is known as a strong orator and chairs the Foreign Relations Committee - something analysts say would balance Mr Obama's self-confessed lack of foreign policy experience.
The son of a car salesman, he is also expected to appeal to the blue collar workers with whom Mr Obama has struggled to connect.
The senator ran against Mr Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination but dropped out after failing to gain enough support.
| OFFICE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT Second-highest executive officer in the United States Assumes the top role if the president cannot continue in office One of four statutory members of the National Security Council |
Hillary Clinton, who had been touted as a possible running mate, said Senator Biden would be a "purposeful and dynamic vice-president".
"In naming my colleague and friend Senator Joe Biden to be the vice presidential nominee, Senator Obama has continued in the best traditions for the vice-presidency by selecting an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant," she said in a statement.
The McCain camp called the choice of Mr Biden an admission by Barack Obama that he was not ready to be president.
"Biden has denounced Barack Obama's poor foreign policy judgement and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realising - that Barack Obama is not ready to be president," McCain campaign spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement.
John McCain has reportedly not yet settled on a running mate.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are reported to be under serious consideration for the role.
source:bbc
Obama introduces running mate Biden
By BETH FOUHY and CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writers1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Barack Obama introduced Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware on Saturday as "a leader ready to step in and be president," and the newly named running mate quickly converted his debut on the Democratic ticket into a slashing attack on Republican John McCain.
The GOP presidential contender will have to "figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at" when considering his own economic future, said Biden, jabbing at the man he nevertheless called his personal friend.
It was a reference to McCain's recent inartful admission — in a time of economic uncertainty — that he was not sure how many homes he owns.
Before a vast crowd spilling out from the front of the Old State Capitol, Obama said Biden was "what many others pretend to be — a statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong."
Democrats coalesced quickly around the 47-year-old Obama's selection of a seasoned veteran of three decades in the Senate — a choice meant to provide foreign policy heft to the party's ticket for the fall campaign against McCain and the Republicans.
Polls show Obama rates relatively poorly against McCain on foreign policy issues, and Biden is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with extensive experience in that area.
The 65-year-old congressional veteran emerged as Obama's choice after a secretive selection process that reviewed at least a half-dozen contenders — but evidently not Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady who was Obama's tenacious rival across the primaries and caucuses of winter and spring.
Obama made a symbolic choice for the site of the ticket's first joint appearance.
It was a brutally cold winter day more than a year ago when he stood outside the historic structure in the Illinois capital to launch his quest for the White House.
He returned this day in sunshine, the party's improbable nominee-in-waiting, a black man in his first Senate term who outdistanced a crowded field of far better-known and more experienced rivals for the nomination.
The Democratic National Convention opens on in Denver Monday to nominate him as president and Biden as vice president, the ticket that Democrats hope to ride into the White House after eight years of Republican rule.
Polls indicate a highly competitive race at the end of a summer in which McCain eroded what had been Obama's slender advantage in the national surveys.
A security fence sprung up overnight around the Pepsi Center as the pace of preparations accelerated in advance of Monday night's opening session, and police on bicycles patrolled nearby streets.
Inside the sports arena, even the Zamboni machine — the lumbering, wheeled vehicle used to resurface the ice between periods of hockey games — had been moved out to make room for the Democrats.
McCain's convention opens on Labor Day in St. Paul, Minn. He has yet to select a running mate.
Responding to Obama's pick, the McCain campaign quickly produced a television ad featuring Biden's previous praise for McCain and comments critical of his new benefactor. In an ABC interview last year, Biden said he stood by an earlier statement that Obama wasn't yet ready to be president and "the presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."
In addition, the Republican Party arranged for an independent expenditure advertising campaign to coincide with the Democratic convention. One individual familiar with the plans described a $2.25 million effort on cable and broadcast stations through Aug. 31 in the battleground states of Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Obama brought Biden on stage with his glowing introduction to the strains of Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising."
The newly named running mate moved center stage in shirt-sleeves at a brisk trot that belied his 65 years, and embraced Obama.
"I'm glad to be here," said the man who has twice sought the presidency. Thousands of newly printed signs bearing the words Obama/Biden sprouted in the crowd that waited in anticipation in 90-degree temperatures.
Both men spoke for 16 minutes — unlikely a coincidence given Biden's reputation for verbosity.
Obama's remarks were carefully crafted to emphasize Biden's accomplishments in the Senate, his blue-collar roots and — above all — his experience on foreign policy.
"I can tell you Joe Biden gets it," he said. "He's that unique public servant who is at home in a bar in Cedar Rapids and the corridors of the Capitol, in the VFW hall in Concord, and at the center of an international crisis," he said.
In contrast to the Obamas and the McCains, the Delaware senator isn't a multimillionaire. Biden and his wife, Jill, have $59,000 to $366,000 in assets and $140,000 to $365,000 in debts, including a $15,000 to $50,000 line of credit Biden co-signed with his son to cover college expenses, according to a financial disclosure report for 2007, which describes assets and liabilities in ranges.
Obama recounted the personal tragedy that struck Biden more than 30 years ago, within days of his election to the Senate, when his first wife and their child were killed in an automobile accident.
He said Biden raised his surviving children as a single parent, commuting between the Capitol and Delaware daily on the Amtrak train.
"For decades, he has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn't changed him," Obama said, attempting to blunt an emerging Republican line of attack that notes Biden's three decades in the polished corridors of the Capitol.
"He's an expert on foreign policy whose heart and values are rooted firmly in the middle class."
In a jab at McCain that foretold Biden's far sharper criticism, Obama said his political partner "will give us some real straight talk."
Biden blended praise for Obama and criticism of McCain.
"You can't change America and make things better for our senior citizens when you signed on to Bush's scheme of privatizing Social Security," he said.
"You can't change America and end this war in Iraq when you declare — and again these are John's words — 'No one has supported President Bush in Iraq more than I have,' end of quote."
David Axelrod, Obama's senior strategist, described Obama's vice presidential search as "a long process but it always pointed in Biden's direction."
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is close to Obama, added, "Many others were discussed but my impression was that those three a few weeks ago were really the centerpiece — Kaine, Bayh and Biden." He referred to Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh.
_____
Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report from Denver.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment