Barack Obama picks Joe Biden as VP nominee

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Barack Obama picks Joe Biden as VP nominee

 

07:22 AM CDT on Saturday, August 23, 2008

 

By TODD J. GILLMAN/The Dallas Morning News tgillman@dallasnews.com

 

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — As stagehands prepared for Barack Obama’s rally today with his freshly minted running mate, the Democrat kept supporters and even some on his short list in suspense.

 

But late Friday, several news organizations reported that Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden of Delaware is Mr. Obama's choice.

 

Mr. Obama announced the pick on his Web site with a photo of the two men and an appeal for donations. A text message went out shortly afterward that said, "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee."

 

Mr. Obama's decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Mr. Obama had chosen. The campaign scrambled to send the text message after the leak, sending phones buzzing at the inconvenient time of just after 2 a.m. Central time.

 

Mr. Biden spent the day at home in Delaware, and by late Friday, associates said he expected to be picked. The long-time senator, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination both this year and in 1988, was seen by many Democrats as an experienced Washington hand who could provide foreign-policy background to counter Mr. Obama's relative inexperience.

 

No sooner had word spread of his selection than John McCain's campaign unleashed its first attack. Spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement that Biden had "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."

 

As evidence, Republicans cited an ABC interview from August 2007, in which Mr. Biden said he would stand by an earlier statement that Mr. Obama was not ready to serve as president.

 

Mr. Biden is seeking a new Senate term in the fall. There was no immediate word whether he intended to change plans as he reaches for national office.

 

Michael Silberman, a partner at online communications firm EchoDitto, said the campaign gambled when they made such a high-stakes promise and find themselves in a precarious situation where they could risk a great deal of trust with supporters.

 

"For Obama supporters, this is like finding out from your neighbor instead of your sister that she's engaged - not how you want or expect the news to be delivered," Mr. Silberman said.

 

Mr. Biden dropped out of the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination after a poor finish in the Iowa caucuses, but not before he talked dismissively of joining someone else's ticket.

 

"I am not running for vice president," he said in a Fox interview. "I would not accept it if anyone offered it to me. The fact of the matter is I'd rather stay as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than be vice president."

 

He had stumbled on his first day in the race, apologizing for having described Mr. Obama as "clean." Months later, Mr. Obama spoke up on Mr. Biden's defense, praising him during a campaign debate for having worked for racial equality.

 

The late news followed a long day of speculation after Mr. Obama's first public acknowledgment that he’d made his pick.

 

Among those seen as a finalist for the second slot was congressman Chet Edwards of Texas, along with two governors and another senator.

 

Each smiled for the camera crews on their driveways and tried to shrug off the butterflies. Late Friday, both Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh had told associates they weren’t picked.

 

“Whatever he decides he needs. That’s for him to decide,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters during a stop at the New York state fair in Syracuse. “This is his decision and I respect him to make it however he believes is best for him, for our party and for the country.”

 

In Waco, journalists and neighbors gathered near Mr. Edwards’ home near Baylor University, though not as many as seemed to be tracking the movements of the better-known contenders.

 

Early Friday, a report emerged that the Obama team hadn’t formally vetted Ms. Clinton, angering her most ardent backers and threatening discord when the party’s convention opens Monday in Denver. Obama aides sent word that after their bruising primary and her decades in the public eye, there wasn’t much need for her to fill out a questionnaire and submit to further scrutiny. If Ms. Clinton was miffed, she wasn’t letting on.

 

Mr. Obama planned to appear for the first time today with his running mate, at an elaborate rally at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where he launched his bid for president in February 2007.

 

He spent the day at home in Chicago, going to the gym and working on his convention acceptance speech.

 

Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana took one of his sons to tennis camp. Mr. Kaine helped his son move to college, then boarded a private plane that, according to aides, would take him to suburban Denver for the convention.

 

Dave Levinthal and David Flick and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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