Obama picks Biden as running mate

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama has chosen Sen. Joe Biden Jr. of Delaware to be his running mate, turning to a leading authority on foreign policy and a longtime Washington hand to fill out the Democratic ticket, people told of the decision said.

Obama's selection ended a two-month search that was conducted almost entirely in secret. It reflected a critical strategic choice by Obama: To go with a running mate who could reassure voters about gaps in his resume, rather than to pick someone who could deliver a state or reinforce Obama's message of change.

Biden is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is familiar with foreign leaders and diplomats around the world. Although he initially voted to authorize the war in Iraq -- Obama opposed it from the start -- Biden became a persistent critic of President Bush's policies in Iraq.

The selection was disclosed as Obama moves into a critical part of his campaign, preparing for the party's four-day convention in Denver starting Monday. Obama's aides viewed the introduction of his vice presidential choice -- including an afternoon rally today at the old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., the same place where Obama announced his candidacy on a freezing winter morning almost two years ago, and a tour of swing states -- as the beginning of a weeklong stretch in which Obama hopes to dominate the stage and position himself for the fall campaign.

Word of Obama's decision leaked out hours before his campaign was scheduled to inform supporters via text and e-mail messages, and hours after informing two other top contenders for the vice presidential nomination -- Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia -- that they had not been chosen.

As the selection process moved to an end, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who Obama had defeated in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, had slipped out of contention -- to the degree that Obama had never seriously considered her.

Biden is Roman Catholic, giving him appeal to that important voting bloc, though he favors abortion rights. He was born in a working-class family in Scranton, Pa., a swing state where he remains well-known. Biden is up for re-election to the Senate this year, and he would presumably run simultaneously for both seats.

Biden is known for being both talkative and prone to making the kind of statements that get him in trouble. In 2007, when he was competing for Obama for the presidential nomination, he declared that Obama was "not yet ready" for the presidency, a line certain to show up in Republican attack ads.

Although Biden is not exactly a household name, he is probably the best known of all the Democrats who were in contention for the spot, given his political and personal history (not to mention his regular appearances on the Sunday TV news shows.) He first ran for the Senate from Delaware when he was just 29 years old.

Biden has run twice for the presidency himself, once in 1988 and again in 2008, dropping out early in both cases.

He was also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during two of the most contentious Supreme Court nomination battles of the past 50 years: the confirmation proceedings for Robert Bork, who was defeated, and Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed after an explosive hearing in which Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment.

Biden led the opposition to both nominations, though he came under criticism from some feminists for not immediately disclosing what were at first Hill's closed-door accusations against Thomas.

Obama's choice of Biden suggested some of the weaknesses the Obama campaign is trying to address at a time when national polls suggest that his race with Sen. John McCain is tightening.

Chief among Biden's strengths is his familiarity with foreign policy and national security issues, highlighted just this past weekend with the invitation he received from the president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, to visit Georgia in the midst of its tense faceoff with Russia. From the moment he dropped out of the presidential race, he had been mentioned as a potential secretary of state should either Obama or Clinton win the election.

He is also something of a fixture in Washington, and would bring to the campaign -- and the White House -- a familiarity with the way the city and Congress works that Obama can not match after his relatively short stint in Washington.

At 65 years old, he adds a few years and gray hairs to a ticket that otherwise might seem a bit young (Obama is 47). He is, as Obama's advisers were quick to argue, someone who appears by every measure prepared to take over as president, setting a standard that appears intended to at least somewhat hamstring McCain should he be tempted to go for a more adventurous choice for No. 2.

Biden has a long history of making statements that get him in trouble. He was forced to apologize to Obama almost the moment he entered the race for president after he was quoted as describing Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," a remark that drew criticism for being racially insensitive.

The choice by Obama in some ways mirrors the choice by Bush of Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000; at 65, it appears unlikely that Biden would be in a position to run for president, should Obama win and serve two terms. Shorn of any remaining ambition to run for president on his own, he could find himself in a less complex political relationship with Obama than most vice presidents have with their presidents.