Thu, August 28, 2008
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign announced early Saturday that Joseph Biden has been chosen as the vice presidential candidate.
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the leaders who will bring the change our country needs," Obama's official campaign said in a brief statement.
The announcement came as it was planned, first on Obama's website and then through text messages to his registered supporters early Saturday morning, hours after U.S. media's overwhelming coverage on the reported selection of the 65-year-oldSenator.
"Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee," said the message.
The message also said Obama and Biden were set to appear in a rally in Illinois on Saturday afternoon, the first time for the pair to campaign together in public.
Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues, is considered to compensate for Obama's lack of experience.
Speculations geared up on the 65-year-old Senator's vice candidacy after the other two top potential candidates, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, have received calls from Obama's campaign, saying that they were not to be his running mates.
Growing up in a working-class family, Biden is also expected to help Obama win over more blue-collars in November.
However, his age and long-term immersion in the Capitol Hill potentially threat Obama's motto to bring changes to Washington.
In an immediate response, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain's spokesman Ben Porritt issued a statement, saying "there has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama's lack of experience than Joe Biden."
He referred to Biden's attacks on Obama during the Democratic primary earlier this year where the two were competing for the party's presidential candidacy.
"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," he said.
Born on Nov. 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden moved to New Castle, Delaware, with his family at age 10.
After graduating from the Syracuse University College of Law, he joined the Delaware Bar in 1969 and was elected to the county council the next year.
During the 1972 general elections, he won the Senate seat shortly before he turned 30, making him the fifth-youngest U.S. Senator in the country's history.
Currently, Biden was in his sixth term at the Capitol Hill, as the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Delaware history, including many years as the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Foreign Relations Committee.
However, he failed twice in his bid for the White House in 1987and 2008, but emerged as one of the top potential vice presidential candidates for Obama recently, especially after he was invited to visit Georgia to assess the situation there, spotlighting his national security and foreign policy credentials.
When asked what qualities his running mate should have, Obama said in an earlier interview that the candidate should not be picked for his age, race, gender or states he represents, but for his integrity and independence to tell the president what he thinks and share a vision of the country.
"I'm not interested in a vice president who I just send off to go to funerals," he told NBC. "I want somebody who's going to be able to roll up their sleeves and really do some work."
The official announcement came just two days before the Democratic National Convention starts in Denver, Colorado, where the pair were set to receive nomination, a move considered to bring voters some pre-convention heat and help overshadow any other dominant stories over the weekend, including potential demonstration by Hillary Clinton's supporters.
