August 23 - Joe Biden is Obama's running mate

[</1uxkz>]

CHICAGO -- Barack Obama has tapped Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running mate, bringing to the Democratic ticket a veteran senator with deep expertise in international relations, the campaign announced around midnight Pacific time.

The confirmation came hours after The Times and other news outlets reported that Biden was Obama's choice -- and after a full day of intense media speculation that included stakeouts at the homes of the top three contenders.

The Obama campaign had hoped to keep the choice secret until the Illinois senator could notify his supporters via text message and e-mail, but got scooped.

"Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee," the text message said. "Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!"

The website's language was slightly different: "Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the leaders who will bring the change our country needs. But they can't do it alone. Show your support for the Obama-Biden ticket by making a donation today."


Late Friday, media reports had indicated that the other main candidates -- Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine -- were told they were out of the running, and attention turned to Biden, who remained secluded.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden could help offset Obama's relative inexperience in foreign policy. Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator, has been ridiculed by his Republican rival, John McCain, as too naive to be president.

Two high-level Democratic operatives confirmed Biden's selection to The Times Friday night. Biden, 65, had emerged earlier this week as a top choice. The Times reported Wednesday that the Delaware senator had met repeatedly with campaign officials and that the Secret Service was preparing to protect him.

On Friday, one of the Democrats working with the campaign said the Secret Service had been dispatched and a plane readied to take Biden to Springfield, Ill., where Obama plans to roll out his vice presidential pick today at a rally at the Old State Capitol.

A Roman Catholic born to a working-class family in Scranton, Pa., Biden might also help Obama draw blue-collar Catholic voters who formed a core constituency for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in her primary battle with Obama.

Biden has already demonstrated an appetite for defending Obama and taking on McCain, particularly on foreign policy issues. In May, he criticized President Bush for attacking those like Obama who favor reaching out diplomatically to regimes like Iran and North Korea.

The senator also offers a compelling personal story. His first wife, Neilia Hunter, died in a car accident in 1972 as she was driving their three children shortly after his election as U.S. senator. Their infant daughter was also killed but their two sons -- Beau and Hunter -- survived their injuries.

Biden, then 30, was sworn in as a first-term senator at his sons' bedside.

Biden has long harbored aspirations to be president himself. He ran this year, but dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in January after a lackluster showing in the Iowa caucuses. "I'm not a superstar," he said while stumping in Iowa. "People say they like me, people tell me they think I'd be a good president but that they just don't think I can win."

Along with his Senate Foreign Relations post, which recently took him on a trip to Georgia after the Russian invasion, Biden has been chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and has had a hand in legislation on crime, terrorism and drug policy.

At the same time, as a 36-year Senate veteran, Biden is a Washington insider, an image that is at odds with the theme of change Obama has promoted. Still, he is popular with many Democratic Party activists and may help Obama with less affluent voters who have been cool to him.

One issue that could prove problematic is that Biden supported the 2002 resolution in favor of military action in Iraq. Obama has made his opposition to the war a centerpiece of his campaign. But Biden has become a persistent critic of the handling of the war.

One of the main roles of the Democratic vice presidential nominee will be to attack McCain and his running mate. The Arizona senator is expected to name his No. 2 after the Democrats end their national convention in Denver on Thursday.

The McCain campaign responded quickly to media reports that Obama had picked Biden. "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 McCain spokesman Ben Porritt.

In an August 2007 interview with Charlie Rose, Biden said that he believed Obama was "fully capable of being ready" to be president, but added: "He hasn't demonstrated it yet. This is early in the campaign." In other interviews, Biden demurred from criticizing Obama directly and emphasized his own extensive experience on the world stage.

In the Democratic debates, Biden also uttered some of the most stinging lines about the Republicans, calling Rudolph W. Giuliani "probably the most under-qualified person since George Bush to seek the presidency" and saying that the former New York mayor only used three words in a sentence -- "a noun and a verb and 9/11."

While Biden is a skilled orator, he is often mocked for being verbose. His words have also come back to haunt him.

He created a stir early in the past year's Democratic presidential race when he told a reporter for the New York Observer that Obama was "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." He apologized, saying, "I deeply regret any offense my remark . . . might have caused anyone."

Last year, referring to Indian immigrants, Biden said, "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. It's a point. I'm not joking!"

And when he ran for president in 1988, Biden was accused of plagiarism when he did not credit Neil Kinnock, then leader of the British Labor Party, for much of his stump speech.


Before heading to the convention, Obama and Biden are expected to make appearances in a series of critical states, arriving in Denver on Wednesday. Obama's vice presidential choice is slated to speak that night and Obama will address his supporters on Thursday in a football stadium that can seat 76,000 people.

In recent days, Obama was said to be focusing on Biden, Bayh and Kaine, though other names continued to surface.

In looking for a vice presidential candidate, Obama sought to remedy several vulnerabilities as a candidate. As a first-term U.S. senator, his legislative record is thin, and he has little experience in foreign policy or military affairs.

Politically, Obama has yet to demonstrate deep strength among white working-class voters, a weakness that was exposed during his long battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. He also has aimed to win over women voters and others who supported his primary rival, Sen. Clinton.

The selection of Biden caps a screening process managed in secrecy by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late president, and Eric Holder, a former U.S. deputy attorney general, since June, when Obama clinched the delegates he needed for the nomination.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...4.story?page=2