August
22 Obama-Biden

Barack Obama will pick Joseph Biden as his running mate, news sources report.

The chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Biden would help fill a hole in the Obama resume with extensive experience and expertise in world matters.

Although it could be regarded as a safe choice, it carrries some risk. Biden has a tendency to be long-winded and to get in trouble for some things he says.

As indications pointed to a Biden pick, there also was some wonderment among some Hillary Clinton supporters today as to why Obama didn't pick her. One argument against her is that, as a figure in national politics for such a long time, she would diminish Obama's brand of change. Yet Biden has been in the Senate since 1972, the longest of the entire field of Democratic candidates this cycle.

Here's an interview with Biden from last year, when he was emphasizing his foreign policy credentials at the start of his presidential campaign. He was in Beverly Hills to raise money --- and he admitted that his connections in the entertainment industry were scant.

Nevertheless, at the time there was speculation that Biden was hoping to be secretary of state, and he made little secret about the fact that that was how he was viewed.

"We kind of have a short hand in the campaign now," Biden said then. "They see me as secretary of state, not as president. They don't care if the secretary of state has any charisma. They want to know if the secretary of state knows what the hell he or she is doing."

Biden is a very personable campaigner on the trail, where he championed causes of the military rank and file and of the plight of returning veterans.

Biden's Senate career has been marked by tragedy and triumph. Just weeks after he was elected at age 29 in 1972, his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident. Two sons were seriously injured, and Biden was sworn in at the hospital.

He was considered a leading contender for the 1988 presidential nomination, but dropped out of the race after charges that he plagiarized a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. An investigation later cleared him of the accusations.