Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware), from all indications, will be Barack Obama's choice as his vice-presidential running mate.According to ABC News, the U.S. Secret Service "has dispatched a protective detail to assume the immediate protection of Sen. Joseph Biden...."
Various outlets, including the New York Times, are reporting that both Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) and Gov. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), have been advised that they have not and will not been selected as Sen. Obama's running mate; these reports have been confirmed by representatives of those "finalists" for the v.p. spot.
Biden, 65 and in his sixth term in office, serves as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is a long-time member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A charter jet was dispatched from Chicago's Midway field to New Castle, Delaware, arriving at 7:33 this evening, possibly carrying Obama campaign representatives to Senator Biden's home, and to transport Sen. Biden back to Illinois where a joint appearance by Obama and his V.P. choice is scheduled for this Saturday afternoon, August 23.
Wikipedia, as usual, provides good background on Senator Biden:
Marc Ambinder over at The Atlantic sees Obama / Biden as "a formidable ticket and a risky ticket, and not a comfort zone choice for Obama.":Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph R. Biden, Sr. and Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan.[2][3] He was the first of four siblings[3] and is of Irish Catholic heritage.*** The Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware when Biden was 10 years old,[3] and he grew up in suburban New Castle County, Delaware, where his father was a car salesman. He also loved to play the flute in band, which earned him the nickname, "fleet flutin joe". In 1961, Biden graduated from Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware[3] and, in 1965, from the University of Delaware in Newark,[5] where he double majored in history and political science.[3] He then attended Syracuse University College of Law, graduated in 1968, and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969.[5][6][7]
In 1966, while in law school, Biden married Neilia Hunter. They had three children, Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, Robert Hunter, and Naomi. His wife and infant daughter died in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident, but both eventually made full recoveries. Biden was sworn into office from their bedside. Persuaded not to resign in order to care for them, Biden began the practice of commuting an hour and a half each day on the train from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, DC, which he continues to do.
In 1977, Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs. They have one daughter, Ashley, and are members of the Roman Catholic Church. In February 1988, Biden was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms which kept him from the Senate for seven months.
Biden's elder son, Beau, ...was elected Attorney General of Delaware in 2006. He is a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard, where he serves in the Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps. He is set to be deployed to Iraq in October.[8] Biden's younger son, Hunter, works as a lawyer in Washington, DC, serves on the board of directors of Amtrak, and previously worked in the Commerce Department.
Since 1991, Biden has also served as an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law, where he teaches a seminar on constitutional law. ***
Put aside the obvious: Biden has foreign policy meat on his bones...He's a great debater... he has a working-class Scranton-bred Irish-Catholic heritage...he knows Washington very well...he has known tragedy in his life...While some are concerned about Joe Biden's tendency to allow less than "politically correct" comments to slip into his speech and to be a bit long-winded, his response to a question about those tendencies in this Democratic debate demonstrated some ability to control those tendencies.
He was elected to the Senate as a change agent at the age of 29. He is comfortable but not wealthy -- he has not used the prerogatives of office to enrich his personal wealth, although his family has benefited from his stature.
Biden premised his presidential candidacy on the notion that Obama was unqualified and not ready from day one. You can expect that the McCain campaign or the RNC will run a national television advertisement featuring Biden's many and various quotations to this effect.
I gather that what impressed Obama about Biden is that Biden gets things done. He's a man of action. He's not a bullshitter. ***
I gather that Obama realizes that he needed a pick that would demonstrate some level of intellectual seriousness about the condition of the world. One of his sons heads for Iraq soon. Obama knows that, for Biden, getting Iraq right is much more than just about proving a point.
Biden is also a fighter on domestic policy. He touts as one of his greatest legislative accomplishments 1994's Violence Against Women Act.
Biden's comment summing up Rudy Giuliani was oft repeated:
Biden has long warned of the dangers posed by forces in Pakistan, as is recognized in this short discussion on the PBS Newshour:
Biden discusses his qualifications (particularly with regard to foreign affairs) in this five-minute video he offered in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses.
And he's certainly not shy about speaking his mind - here, speaking about Administration policy in Iraq:
Looks like we're in for a lively race between now and November!
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