Obama picks Biden as VP

Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joe Biden as his Vice-Presidential candidate.

Biden is 65 years old and one of the more experiences Senators – especially in foreign policy. He sought the Democratic nomination 20 years ago in 1988 and was briefly a candidate this time also.

He entered the Senate when I was five years old – in 1973, so has served 36 years there. His age when elected, 30, is the constitutional minimum to be a Senator.

Unlike Obama (who was not in the Senate then), Biden voted in favour of the resolution authorising war in Iraq in 2002.

His 1988 presidental campaign was derailed by plagiarism scandals.

Often VP choices are made to balance the ticket – make it more electable. The Biden choice is of course also about electability, but more about negating fears of Obama’s inexperience that appealing to a specific demographic. It seems a pretty solid choice. The only downside is he undermines Obama’s brand as being about change, but I doubt it will seriously impact that.