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After all the nonsense coming out in the past two days about who might be Barack Obama’s pick for the vice presidency, some official word now from ABC News that the United States Secret Service has been dispatched to begin a protection detail on Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.
Story from Political Punch:
The United States Secret Service has dispatched a protective detail to assume the immediate protection of Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., a source tells ABC News, indicating in all likelihood that Biden has been officially notified that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has selected him to be his running mate.
Sources also tell ABC News that two others said to be finalists for the position of Obama’s running mate — Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Virginia Gov Tim Kaine — have been told they have not been selected to be Obama’s running mate.
Kaine flew to Denver earlier today, is in Denver tonight and has no plans to leave in the next 24 hours. Bayh is at his Washington, DC, home with his family.
Biden was last seen minutes ago at his Wilmington estate where his extended brood is gathering.
The Obama campaign would not comment, but Obama mentioned Biden twice in speeches on the trail this week, both times heralding his legislative leadersip in East Asia.
This is the first concrete information I’ve heard concerning the choice. We will learn officially Saturday morning, perhaps around 10am eastern time via text message.
Will update Saturday morning when the official word comes out… developing…
Update:
It’s official as of Saturday morning, Obama has chosen Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential pick. The official story from Breitbart:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his vice presidential running mate early Saturday, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.
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.”
Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.
Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.
In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.
Obama’s campaign arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.
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 Obama had chosen. The campaign scrambled to send the text message after the leak, sending phones buzzing at the inconvenient time of just after 3 a.m. on the East coast.
A video report from the Associated Press:
For Obama this brings much needed credibility in the area of foreign policy and someone who is seen as an elder statesman. Biden is not the most exciting pick but he probably is a safe one. Had Obama gone with a woman besides Hillary, it would have been a slap to her. Even so, I’m betting a good portion of Hillary supporters are not very pleased with this development as I heard all week from many of them that she would be the best choice.
The McCain campaign wasted no time in congratulating Biden and then immediately releasing the first web ad using Biden’s own words against Obama:
I remember posting months ago, probably last year about how the statements by Democrats would be eventually be used against Obama and that time has come.
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Joe Biden rocks!!!
Haha, I like Biden. I think it will work out well- the man has a way with words (I mean that both in a positive and negative way).
If this is true, Biden is the best pick Obama could have made short of talking Powell into it. As a conservative at least I can feel a little better about Obama’s decision’s on terror issues
Totally agree Todd. Powell would have been a real trump card for Obama but Biden is a solid running mate.
Lets just sit back, relax and watch the Hillaryites jump up and down, cry foul and go absolutely bonkers over it.
I think Biden is very exciting! He’s a very smart guy, has a bit of a swagger, and he shoots from the hip. He can talk foreign policy with such confidence and in such depth that he’s pretty hard to dismiss.
McCain thinks Biden’s an excellent choice too. All day I’ve been hearing statements from the campaign chiding Obama’s choice of a ‘mentor’, and saying that the choice of Biden showcases Obama’s weaknesses as a candidate.
Basically those are negative ways of saying that Biden is an excellent candidate, who’s strengths compliment Obama’s weaknesses very well, and who was obviously chosen for his capacity to serve as an effective adviser. If that’s actually the line of attack, I can only imagine McCain’s campaign is feeling uneasy right now.
Personally, I’m elated to see him back in the race. I wonder if the VP debate will be Joe vs Joe
Biden is a bad pick. this ruins obamas whole campaign on washington reform and transformation of change. I think this helps mccain.
Indi I have to sray true to what I said I believe Biden is a good pick but with that said Obama must now feel that McCain’s years in the senate ain’t that big of a problem after all, seems a little disingenuous after all the “change” message is now kinda moot.
No one wants to throw experience away .We need new ways of thinking in in policies that gets us blow back.And someone with a fresh look at things. Obama always said he wasn’t going to do it alone.I like Biden . I feel comfortable with him and Obama working together.A good leader always has a strong and capable second.
Eat your heart out McCain (If you don’t have a stoke first ).*LOL*
I agree with Biden. Biden thinks McCain should be in White House and Obama should not. Just quoting Biden.
Rayven–You are wrong. Obama has a dream of change. Did you hear his views before picking Biden. But I feel Obama and Biden are perfect match. Both changed their thinking often. Obama now is for off-shore drilling. Thinks experienced vp, simular to mcCain, is needed. If Obama believes that bull dog Biden will get McCain, think again.. See my above comment.
Bill Hedges ,
Just because you may have one sided thinking ,it don’t mean that Obama does. Just because you have a start up plan don’t mean you can’t revise it for the better.McCain is old .He has old world thinking(look at his policies). He may think one sided.
They have come up with a comprehensive plan for energy.That is why Barrack thinks its ok to drill.that is what the win fall tax is all about.When you are in a democratic republic you tend to compromise to get what you want .And he can still have change this does not interfere with his message.He is running on democratic agenda(they all were, you would know that if you looked at the plans).So Biden would be a big help(seeing how he knows the democratic agenda).You see the democrat plan to help the people and get the economy going.By investing in alternative tech. This will open new jobs and bring energy prices down(that is two birds with one stone).They have been trying to do this for several years now but some people keep on stopping them.So do you really think drilling will help.
The Republican Energy Drill
http://newsproject.org/node/109
Rayven, the choice of Biden takes age off the table, haven’t you heard? He’s old, too, so it must not be a factor to Obama. Biden will add nothing. Personally I like the quip I heard this weekend - so the agent of “hope” and “change” has been hiding in the Senate all along, for over 30 years - who would have thunk it? If you think that McCain is old and old school, take a look at your new VP pick. He’s old and even older school. If this is Obama’s idea of “crossing the aisle” in Congress, he really is naive.
Kinda funny that most Reps think Biden is a bad choice as VP, because lets be honest, they wouldn’t exactly say he’s a good choice and praise Obama’s decision….LOL
Perhaps they think he’s a bad choice because McCain’s gonna struggle to use the lack of foreign policy experience mantra he’s been saying for the past couple of months.
Watched the O’Reilly Factor tonight and even Bill said Biden was a good choice for Obama, so it must be true.
It’s true, I keep hearing that welcoming Biden to his side is a bad choice, because it detracts from Obama’s primary appeal - only I don’t hear this from disappointed Obama supporters. I hear it from people who never felt he had much appeal to begin with. I can’t help but think this is a sign that the people who believe this may never have really understood that appeal.
Then again, Biden was my favored candidate in the primaries, so I’m more than a little biased now.
He’s said some very good things about John McCain in the past? Great, so have I! Biden’s truly bipartisan, and it’s coming back to haunt him! Though most of the quotes that come up are from 4 or more years ago.
When Obama brings up that McCain has voted in line with Bush 95% of the time (as Obama loves to mention about 3 times a day) that’s true, but only for the last couple of years - the idea being that “2004 McCain” and “You-know-I’d-really-like-to-be-the-republican-nominee McCain” are not exactly the same politician. As they say, our hero left the battlefield for wallstreet.
It was the “2004 McCain” that Biden would have welcomed to the democratic ticket, I doubt he’d feel the same today.
So that criticism all seems like rhetoric to me. Biden did speak badly of Obama when they were in competition with each other, and that will probably haunt their ticket to the end. But since they were in direct competition with one another, it’s kind of hard to take that as seriously as I would if one of Obama’s peers had said it without any personal motive. Politics is just dirty. The republicans released their share of nasty attack ads against one another, and I’m sure we’ll see those again one day too.
Rayven,
Dang can’t you get off this windfall tax stuff ? Name one company in any industry that does not pass it’s business expense on to it’s customers, just one. When you realize you can’t then you will understand why a windfall tax is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Indi & Pudding
I like Biden and have said before Obama picked him that he would be one of few democrats I would vote for IF he were 1st on the ticket. But come on you guys have to see the irony in Obama picking a man who has been in the senate for what is it 32 years ? Obama has lived off the “change” theme and then he picks a old style 32 year senate veteran to help him accomplish it. Really, come on ya’ll were smiling when you typed your comments right?
Todd, Obama maybe youthful, and his theme may be change - but it’s not “out with the old, in with the new”.
Obama’s not talking about tearing down washington and rebuilding it from the ground up. If Obama is going to do anything, he needs to do it by working with the people who run things, right? He’ll be a lame duck if he’s not willing and able to work with hundreds of people who have been in the business much longer than he has.
That would be hard to do if his administration is perceived as a bunch of upstart youngsters trying to tell all the experienced politicians how to run things. His fellow democrats needed reassurance that he’s one of them, and the voters needed assurance that someone in the administration already knows how this is done.
If Democrats just wanted a “Change” candidate, without assessing the risks and gains, Kucinich would have been more popular
I too was hoping Biden did a lot better in the primaries than what he did and he was my favoured choice for VP, although I would have dearly loved to see Colin Powell on the ticket. But two black guys on the ticket might have seemed a little too weird for some people.
Obama needed someone with Foreign policy experience not youth and if it wasn’t going to be Powell, then Biden it was. Biden has a certain mature respected calm about him like what LBJ had with JFK.