(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama has picked Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate.


Delaware Sen. Joe Biden has been tabbed as Sen. Barack Obama's vice-presidential running mate.

The longtime Democratic senator was long considered a likely choice for vice president, but the buzz surrounding him intensified after he returned earlier this week from a two-day trip to the Republic of Georgia after Russian troops invaded.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, brings years of experience that could help counter GOP arguments that an Obama administration would be inexperienced on foreign policy.

Biden abandoned his own White House run after a poor showing in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses. He also ran for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out after charges of plagiarism in a stump speech.

The 65-year-old was first elected to the Senate in 1972. Shortly afterwards, his first wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He considered resigning, but decided to continue with his political career.

Biden is currently serving out his sixth term, making him Delaware's longest-serving senator.

Biden is married and has three children. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and got a law degree from Syracuse.

In 1988, Biden suffered an aneurysm and nearly died but has recovered fully.

One of Biden's grandfathers was a Pennsylvania state senator, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

Biden will make his first big speech as the VP candidate on Wednesday, August 27 -- the third night of the Democratic convention.

Joe is right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbOa989IRYw

Joe Biden’s just a barrel of gaffes
By Jonathan Chait
February 04, 2007

DELAWARE Sen. Joe Biden has been telling people for months that he’s going to run for president, as if nobody could actually believe it. Even when he formally announced last week, I still didn’t believe it. In fact, I’m not quite sure what it would take to make me believe it. If I turned on the television and watched Biden formally accepting the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, I might believe it then. (On the other hand, I’d probably figure I was suffering some hallucinatory episode and check myself into a hospital.)

I’m not saying Biden shouldn’t be president. I have tons of respect for him, and I think he’d do a terrific job if he could get it. I just find it amusing that he thinks there’s some chance he could actually become president. It’s a case study of that bizarre mental affliction that strikes so many senators. They see younger, less-experienced Senate colleagues – who are far less esteemed than they are – running for president, and they’re offended. If the 100 senators were the only ones who could vote, Biden would probably beat Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Unfortunately for Biden, that’s not how it works.

Biden’s charming cluelessness was on display in a recent ABC news interview. The famously verbose senator was asked to state in 25 words or less why Democrats should nominate him. His response was 45 words. I suppose that, by Biden’s standards, coming in at just under twice his allotted length counts as a victory of sorts. Biden then explained why he could win: “If people learn my story, learn my record, I think I can compete. The question is, can I raise the money?” This is sort of like me saying that I think I can compete for a starting NFL quarterback job, but the question is, can I avoid injuries? It’s a question, but it’s certainly not the question.

In addition to his uncontrollable verbosity, Biden is a gaffe machine. He ran for president 20 years ago but had to abandon his campaign when it was discovered that he had plagiarized speeches from a British politician, substituting in key details to make the story his own.

In his latest effort, Biden wasted no time subverting his already microscopic chances. On the day of his announcement, he mused about Illinois Sen. Obama: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

In Biden’s defense, the quote was widely misunderstood. Having listened to it, it’s obvious that Biden was not saying Obama is the first mainstream African American candidate who is also articulate and so on. He was saying he’s the first mainstream candidate – meaning ideologically mainstream, unlike Carol Moseley Braun, Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson – and that he’s articulate and so on. He wasn’t calling Jackson or the others inarticulate. To be sure, this is still a pretty cringe-inducing way for white people to talk about African Americans. There’s a famous Chris Rock routine in which he complains about how people describe Colin Powell as “articulate,” as if it were a surprise that a secretary of State can speak well.

And, of course, last summer Biden attempted to endear himself to an Indian American supporter by telling him that in Delaware, “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.” Not only was this an offensive line, it didn’t even make any sense: The observation, familiar to anybody who watched a comedian on cable television 15 years ago, is that Indian Americans are the only ones who work in convenience stores, not that they’re the only ones who shop there. The man can’t even keep his condescending cliches straight.

Biden looks as if he’s the product of a laboratory experiment designed to create the world’s worst presidential candidate. If the Obama gaffe doesn’t knock him out of the race, something else will. I doubt he makes it to Iowa.

Yes, Biden’s very knowledgeable and dedicated. But to win the presidency, you actually have to be good at mass politics. Why is Biden not smart enough to recognize that?

I'm more interested in who McCain picks. Maybe it'll be the battle of the old white men for VP. But something tells me that may not be the case.

So now he's really going against history. The last time two a two senator ticket from the democrats won was with JFK and the republicans have never had two senators win per Wikipedia. I'm not for this pick it at all. Simplistically, yes it is just another OWM, but as I read through Biden's bio on wiki he sounds like a good public servant. Problem is he is from Delaware, a senator, he's almost as old as McCain, and is a continual supporter of the war in Iraq. What kind of "Change" is this anyway?

Check out this site for his voting record

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/cong ... s/B000444/

As I read over his voting record it's splitting me in the middle because I seem to be agreeing with most of his votes such as voting No on FISA, No on creating a free trade zone between us and some latin countries, and supporting a ban on cruel treatment of detainess but then he backs that up with continual support for Iraq war funding and it's original authorization, reauthorizing the Patriot act and also the Bankruptcy bill.

Whatever the case may be I have no clue why he chose him because it certainly can't foreign policy experience since Richardson had that covered. I always thought it would be a governor since that makes the most sense but Obama is clearly losing his mind or has a terrible inner circle to have let him choose Biden.

Delaware...

"Looking at the economy, we LITERALLY cannot afford 4 more years of w" joe b

it's a bit of an odd choice. Democrats already have Delaware in the bag and Biden has had issues in his past about lying and plagiarizing that will most certainly come up now that he has been named VP. He does have Foreign Policy experience and seems like a smart enough guy. I would have tried for someone in a battleground state personally.

Joe Biden on Obama (McCain ad)

Here is what you wrote about a day or two ago:

"Biden really impressed me during the campaign with his Foreign experience and other ideas he had. If this did happen it would make it even more difficult on who I will vote for."

As for the plagiarism, I'm quite sure that the Obama campaign is well aware of all of Biden's skeletons. They aren't exactly national secrets. But that was 20 years ago. McCain's plagiarism scandal was LAST WEEK, so there's little to no ammo there. And even if Obama picked a candidate with no skeletons, the McCain camp would just make something up, like they've done with Obama.

It is an odd choice though and you can't really deny that.

He's got a lot of years in the senate, a solid voting record, respect from both sides in of the aisle, and has a son about to be deployed to Iraq.

His son, Beau, is Delaware's Attorney General, and a Captain in the National Guard. He will deploy in October, 2008 to Iraq (not in the line of fire, but as a JAG). Joe Biden voted for the war and funding, and repeatedly argued for more troops.

Heh. Deployed, eh? That makes it sound so heroic...

One need not be shot at to be "heroic". This guy is an Attorney General that willingly gives up his livelihood for the duration of his deployment.

His son, Beau, is Delaware's Attorney General, and a Captain in the National Guard. He will deploy in October, 2008 to Iraq (not in the line of fire, but as a JAG). Joe Biden voted for the war and funding, and repeatedly argued for more troops.

One need not be shot at to be "heroic". This guy is an Attorney General that willingly gives up his livelihood for the duration of his deployment.