Obama-Biden '08

Quote:

Obama picks Senate veteran Biden as running mate
Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:49am EDT

By Caren Bohan

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has chosen veteran Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, a leading voice on international affairs, as his vice presidential running mate, his campaign said on Saturday.

Biden, 65, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is one of the most knowledgeable Democratic experts on foreign policy -- an area where Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, has been criticized as inexperienced.

Ending days of speculation, Obama announced the decision on his Web site, featuring a photo of the two.

"Barack has chosen Joe Biden to be his running mate," the announcement 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."

Obama's camp also sent a text message and e-mail to supporters.

Biden, a Roman Catholic originally from the battleground state of Pennsylvania, will bring not only foreign policy expertise to the ticket but strong working-class roots.

That could help Obama connect with the blue-collar voters he has failed to attract in the run-up to the November 4 election against Republican John McCain. Obama and McCain are neck and neck in opinion polls.

Biden's 2008 presidential bid fell flat but he proved a forceful and aggressive debater, firing off some of the toughest criticisms of President George W. Bush and the Republican contenders for the White House.

The choice of Biden, who has served in the Senate since 1972, indicates Obama was more interested in filling gaps in his foreign policy experience than in finding someone who could reinforce his message of bringing change to Washington.

The Delaware senator emerged as a strong possibility late on Friday after three other contenders -- Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- reportedly were told they had not been selected.

Others in the mix had included Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Texas Rep. Chet Edwards.

HEADING FOR DENVER

Before he named his No. 2, Obama said this week he had chosen someone who would be able to help him govern and who would offer him independent advice.

The choice of a running mate can reflect on a candidate's judgment and offer hints of the qualities valued in a crucial adviser, although history has shown it is unlikely to have a major impact on the election between Obama and McCain.

McCain, 71, a Vietnam War veteran and long-time senator from Arizona, has yet to name a running mate.

Republicans were quick to attack the choice, pointing to statements Biden made about Obama during the Democratic primary election process.

"There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama's lack of experience than Joe Biden," McCain spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement.

"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."

Stretching out the suspense for maximum political impact, Obama and a very small circle of advisers kept the decision under wraps all week.

After the formal announcement, a big splash is planned when the Democrat will appear with his new running mate at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. The venue is where Obama launched his White House bid last year.

They will then make a tour of some key battleground states, including Iowa and Montana, as they head to the Democratic Party convention that opens on Monday in Denver.

On Thursday, Obama will formally accept his party's nomination as its presidential candidate, making history as the first black American to do so.

Biden, the son of a car salesman, is less wealthy than some of his Senate colleagues and commutes to Washington from his home 80 miles away in Delaware.

A month after his election to the Senate in 1972, Biden's wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He also was stricken by a brain aneurysm in 1988 but recovered fully.

Biden's first presidential bid was cut short in 1987 amid allegations he had plagiarized a speech by British Labour Party politician Neil Kinnock.

Biden, who has acknowledged a tendency to talk too much, has been prone to verbal gaffes.

Early in his failed presidential campaign, Biden apologized after calling Obama "articulate and bright and clean" in an interview with the New York Observer -- words perceived by critics as patronizing and suggesting Biden was surprised that a black candidate could have those qualities.

(Additional reporting by John Whitesides and Jeff Mason; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.

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In an effort to give this subforum some life, I give you this. Try to keep the discussion from turning stupid too quickly, if you would.

Wow. Ask Rotorblade, I called this about four or five months ago.

I'm not sure if I like it. It gives Obama the age his ticket needed as well as someone who (according to CNN at least) can help sway those dreaded, so-called blue-collar voters. I just don't think a lot of people find that he has an appealing personality.

Not an appealing personality? Biden is hilarious. I've never seen a politician worse at keeping his mouth shut and he routinely speaks before he thinks, leading to shocking honesty and hilarious one-liners. I don't know how good a political choice this is, but man, as an observer, I'm excited for the time he calls McCain an old boring son of a bitch on live tv.

This is probably going to have some tenuous implications on the gun vote. The McCaine campaign can really play up Biden's anti-gun history to rile up the cold dead hands vote and keep rural democrats from voting at all.

Plus speaking personally, I just plain don't like Biden. His politics have this paternalistic elitism that is the last thing the Obama campaign needs.

I don't understand his choice. He's always talking about the "Change", but Joe Biden is one of those politicians who have been part of the Washington establishment since like forever. Obama and Biden are totally different, and we have to see whether that's a good or a bad thing. I remember back in 1992, when young Clinton nominated young Gore, two almost totally identical politicians, and they won the elections by a landslide.

What about Tim Kaine? Now that would have been a courageous pick. But okay, he wants to become president, so why stick to your principles, right.

C'mon now - do you honestly think there's any way in hell Obama can even lose this election?

This nigga could pick fucking Mohammed Atta or the shoe bomber Richard Reid for his VP and trounce McCain.

If he loses, they'll say it was 'stolen' from him anyway and it'll be investigated more thoroughly than the assassination of JFK.

In other words: What the fuck are you worried about Musharraf?

Originally Posted by Night Phoenix

In other words: What the fuck are you worried about Musharraf?

I ain't worried about nothing, man, just trying to tell you guys that Obama is a pussy.

Originally Posted by Night Phoenix

C'mon now - do you honestly think there's any way in hell Obama can even lose this election?

Yes, I do believe if they catch OBL two weeks before the election, the Republicans might have a chance.

I kindly request that you don't give up that easily.

They could catch every single terrorist on the planet and all the insurgents in Iraq die and reveal Saddam's secret stash of WMDs and it wouldn't fucking matter. Obama could be revealed to be a child rapist and he would still beat McCain.

Obama will win because of his platform - which is basically "The government will take money from the rich and give it to everyone else in the form of social programs."

You can never stop the spread of socialism once it starts and given current economic conditions, most Americans want the gov't to do something. Obama promises the most of other people's money to them, so he'll win.

I don't think this is a horrible pick, but I don't think it's a particularly great one either. There was this great moment in the debates where this dude stood up and said that his AK-47 was his "baby" and Biden told him he was mentally ill. Pretty fucking told right there.

I think (hope) we'll finally see a VP candidate who is willing to go out there and attack and really hit hard, unlike Joementum and Edwards. Biden does have some negatives and I personally wish Obama had been able to pick someone out of left field that the media had not been speculating about, but I think the single biggest thing the Obama campaign lacks right now is some fangs, and Biden brings that in spades.

Originally Posted by Night Phoenix

They could catch every single terrorist on the planet and all the insurgents in Iraq die and reveal Saddam's secret stash of WMDs and it wouldn't fucking matter. Obama could be revealed to be a child rapist and he would still beat McCain.

Obama will win because of his platform - which is basically "The government will take money from the rich and give it to everyone else in the form of social programs."

You can never stop the spread of socialism once it starts and given current economic conditions, most Americans want the gov't to do something. Obama promises the most of other people's money to them, so he'll win.

The fuck are you talking about, man. Last time I read the numbers, McCain still had good chances to win this thing. He just has to get the stick out of his ass and nominate Romney for vice president. If he doesn't fuck up, everything's gonna be alright.

Originally Posted by Musharraf

The fuck are you talking about, man. Last time I read the numbers, McCain still had good chances to win this thing. He just has to get the stick out of his ass and nominate Romney for vice president. If he doesn't fuck up, everything's gonna be alright.

I'll be surprised if McCain actually does. He hates Romney. I'm told that McCain is big on actually, personally liking the people he surrounds himself with. Why do you think Joementum is even on the short list? They're incredibly friendly.

If McCain picks Romney it's a sign that he is starting to get his game face on and put aside some of his more idiotic quirks and let his ambition to win this thing show through.

I'm not sure why Romney would be such a great choice. His association with the LDS is, to say the least, not popular among the GOP's religious base — and his political positions are inconsistent at best and nakedly opportunistic at worst.

I think it's far more likely that McCain will select some faceless apparatchik rather than hire on the gun-controlling, illegal-immigrant-hiring Mormon from Taxachusetts. Romney's just got too much baggage.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

I'm not sure why Romney would be such a great choice. His association with the LDS is, to say the least, not popular among the GOP's religious base — and his political positions are inconsistent at best and nakedly opportunistic at worst.

I think it's far more likely that McCain will select some faceless apparatchik rather than hire on the gun-controlling, illegal-immigrant-hiring Mormon from Taxachusetts. Romney's just got too much baggage.

I wasn't saying Romney is the best choice -- just one that would be indicative of McCain owning up to the fact that he's a crazy old coot and trying to put a lid on that.

You're right, it's far more likely that he'll choose some faceless Repblican noisemaker.

Or.........

Originally Posted by http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/07/21/daily49.html

former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina

You mean the one who was fired from her job by the Board of Directors? Yeah, she'll make a great running mate. Thank you, Phoenix Business Journal.

Anyway, McCain's VP field is absolutely abysmal, just like many of the downticket races for the Republicans this year.