OlderBarack Obama Picks Joe Biden For VP
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, reports CNN.
Biden, 65, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has four children, one of whom is deceased. Background info via Wiki: In 1966, while in law school, Biden married Neilia Hunter. They had three children, Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III, Robert Hunter, and Naomi. His wife and infant daughter died in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident, but both eventually made full recoveries. In 1977, Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs. They have one daughter, Ashley.
Obama and Biden will face off in the November 4 presidential election against Republican John McCain, who has not yet announced his choice for VP candidate.
Share This Post:
121 Comments
to groundcontrol @ 08/23/2008 at 10:34 am
As for the Viet Nam war, many lay that on Johnson but it was Kennedy who escalated the war in Vietnam.
In his inaugural address Kennedy made a vow to pay any price to help Allies resist any foe to assure the survival of liberty. Of note is that Kennedy was interested in using Special Forces for counterinsurgency in third world countries threatened by communist insurgences.
History bears witness to what happened afterwards.. With the failure of the Bay of Pigs (huge mistake), the construction of the Berlin Wall and the agreement between Laos and the communist movement Kennedy was desperate to curtail the spread of communist. He felt another failure would damage the credibility of the U.S. with it’s Allies and his own reputation. He was determined to take a strong stand against communist forces and felt Vietnam would be the perfect place.
Kennedy increased the U.S. presence in Vietnam. Kennedy was of the opinion that the Vietnam people would fight their own war, but this did not happen because of the poor quality of the military and corruption, leading to more insurgency.
Eventually some in the CIA and others in the military realized the President Diem could not overturn the insurgency and plotted to have him killed. He along with his brother was executed without Kennedy’s knowledge or permission.
With the country now in chaos, Kennedy increased U.S. presence yet again to16,000 military ‘advisers’ to cope with rising guerrilla actives. Seeing that wasn’t working, Kennedy tried to turn to winning the hearts of the Vietnam people. The military leadership in the U.S. was opposed to anything other than the U.S. training the Vietnam troops. As in Iraq and Iran, the U.S. had little practical knowledge of the insurgency.
Kennedy had sent helicopters to Vietnam and formed the joint-U.S. South Vietnam Air Force, he also had sent in the Green Berets. By this time the U.S. were hip deep in the war. Kennedy soon tried to find a way to get out of the war, but didn’t know how. He even sought the advise of Canadian Prime Minister Pearson.
So it was Kennedy who escalated the war in Viet Nam. Yet people still think of him as a great President. He was a likable President, but not great. Johnson continued his support of the war because he really didn’t think that Vietnam was a priority. He continued to send troops to Vietnam. But he could hardly just pack up and leave as we see with the war today.
Still Johnson made many strides for the American People. While Kennedy lived long enough to get us into one of the worse wars of our time, Johnson lived long enough to make many reforms in civil rights and education. He was a champion of the space program, Medicare, Medicaid and the war on poverty.
based on what i’ve seen during the primaries i would NOT have voted for a Obama-Clinton ticket. i WILL vote for Obama-Biden with some reservations but i will be voting, nonetheless
Obama-Biden 2008!!!
oh and i am a WOMAN of color
Go Obama-Biden!
just exactly how is this man a communist? contrary to what you may
believe; being a liberal and having genuine concern for the well-being
of american citizens who are not as fortunate as others does make him the man a communist. His speeches of change are exactly what america needs. you ask why americans want him to change america drastically? well, let’s see we have millions of people who have no access to the health care; either because they make too much money to qualify for government help or they had to choose between health care premiums and a roof over their heads.
we have a man in the white house who lied about there being weapons of mass destruction in iraq in order to justify his sending american troops into that country to be killed. we have other nations who have lost all respect for the united states of america. we have americans who are putting canadian, australian, british, etc flags on their luggage; almost any flag other than our own. why? because
people in other countries are so angry with us it’s easier to let them believe we are not americans.
as to what universal health care means, well i’ll tell you i live in canada right now. i pay 37.00 a month for my health care. i need to go to the hospital i just show them my health care number. when i’m finished i leave; no paying out any money. if i have a heart attack health care covers it. i don’t have to pay thousand of dollars out of my own pocket. is canada’s health care system perfect; not hardly. but i will take it over the health care system i lived under when my husband and i were living back home.
hillary 2012
Most you who are commenting here are ******* and blatant racists. Because he did not pick Hillary you will vote for another party. You want to dictate to him who to pick because he is black. I found your comments very patronising, you will never dictate who to pick if it were a white candidate in the place of Obama. I thought America is a democratic country, people have freedom of choice etc, but a lot of you sound like bloody racists to me. During the campaign Hillary did everything in her power and beyond politics to run Obama out of the race. She constantly attacked him personally, all the name calling and leaking of inaccurate personal information to humilate him. She never attacked other candidates with same ferocity, now you all want him to pick someone who will not only undermine him in office but will want to hijack the President Office as her own and ridicule him at every opportunity. You’re all idiots. If you don’t want to vote for him because he is black at least be bold to say so than being a coward. You can bloody vote for whoever you like but don’t come here and leave your racist comments. I found them offensive! And some of you should commenting need to go back to school because your english are bad.
Most you who are commenting here are ******* and blatant racists. Because he did not pick Hillary you will vote for another party. You want to dictate to him who to pick because he is black. I found your comments very patronising, you will never dictate who to pick if it were a white candidate in the place of Obama. I thought America is a democratic country, people have freedom of choice etc, but a lot of you sound like bloody racists to me. During the campaign Hillary did everything in her power and beyond politics to run Obama out of the race. She constantly attacked him personally, all the name calling and leaking of inaccurate personal information to humilate him. She never attacked other candidates with same ferocity, now you all want him to pick someone who will not only undermine him in office but will want to hijack the President Office as her own and ridicule him at every opportunity. You’re all idiots. If you don’t want to vote for him because he is black at least be bold to say so than being a coward. You can bloody vote for whoever you like but don’t come here and leave your racist comments. I found them offensive! And some of you commenting need to go back to school because your english are bad.
Betty @ 08/23/2008 at 1:09 pm
Dina @ 08/23/2008 at 1:12 pm
john @ 08/23/2008 at 2:41 pm
?? @ 08/23/2008 at 11:11 am
Spiegel @ 08/23/2008 at 8:59 am
Paulie @ 08/23/2008 at 3:43 am
Sunny @ 08/23/2008 at 1:37 am
NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS! JUST KEEP ON ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS!
I think he went with an obvious choice. He needs someone with a lot of foreign policy experience. Heck he needs just needs someone with experience.
Just grateful it’s not John Edwards!
so you think johnson was a great president? like someone said before; go to the vietnam war memorial. find the years 1964 through to 1968. look up some of the men on that wallask them what they thought of president johnson. you won’t be able to because they are all dead. they died in a war that was esclated under the leadership of president johnson.
he continued to send troops to vietnam. under that man’s leadership thousands of american men died and countless number of vietnam vets continue to suffer from injuries they got in that war. a great president would have done everything necessary to put an end to that war. johnson did not; instead he sent more men to their deaths.
Change what happen to the new Washington …Bidens been around for 36years (six more than McCain)…Obama just confirmed everyones doubts … hes not ready and lacks experience…if he really wanted to show that he had good judgement (to win)he would have picked Hillary (even though I CANT stand her) Thanks OB you just handed the election to McCain!!!!!!
to 76 @ 08/23/2008 at 5:42 pm
I didn’t say Johnson was a great president. I was responding to the statement that he was responsible for the Vietnam war and listing what he DID accomplish during his administration. That’s for history to judge as to whether he was great, not me. The fact is if Kennedy had not set on Vietnam as some way to save face we wouldn’t have lost all of those soldiers. You might say that our fate was sealed on that decision.
You expected Johnson to accomplish what President Kennedy couldn’t , getting out of the war. If Kennedy had lived we would have still had the same outcome that is Vietnam, maybe worse. The conspiracy theories regarding his death my not have been all that far fetched. If you think Kennedy had a plan to get out, you are wrong. When he asked the Prime Minister of Canada what to do, he said ‘get out. Kennedy told him he knew that, but HOW? How could he and save face? He would have continued sending troops in too.
They knew less then about Foreign Affairs and insurgency than we do today. We still got ourselves in the mess that is Iraq. Again they underestimated the enemy. Now it’s left up to someone else to try to clean it up or end up the fall guy.
I would appreciate it if you are going to address a comment to me to at least use your screen name.
Team Lara Croft @ 08/23/2008 at 2:39 pm ObamaFan @ 08/23/2008 at 9:53 am
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I amLOVING you right now!!!! Love your post. So true, to the point and intelligent. Yeah!!! I am so happy today. I loev the Hilalry supporters who says she did nto want VP. YEAH RIGHT!!!!! Hahahahaha. Her pundits, Bill and everyone has said how she should be VP. Thank God Obama stood up to them. How dare they pressure him? How dare she? Hillary: It’s over . Bubuye!! No matter what happens in November, Barack has shown his character by not picking that awful combative Hillary. Obama-Biden ‘08!
—————————————————–
Thanks Team Lara Croft. At least someone out there understands.
:-)
Of course, Obama got Biden to run by his side for VP. Biden is more experienced than Obama in many ways. So, it was no surprise that he would pick someone that has more experience than him. Obama is going to be relying on Biden for everything.
If Hillary had won for the democratic nomination, she probably would have hired a black woman, like Rice, to be her VP…. or maybe another minority, male or female.
Given some of the clueless comments I’m still reading on here, I think this is worthy of a repeat:
Don’t you see, guys? Obama had no choice but NOT to pic Hillary. I mean, all of her gaffes, and the one outstanding one during the primaries where she practically called for his assassination, sealed the deal and made it impossible for him to choose her. Besides that, her and Bill’s behavior, right up until last week where she insisted on making it all about her in having a night practically to herself and forcing this ridiculous symbollic roll call, rather than going with the flow like a REAL Democrat and wholeheartedly supporting the nominee, even though it’s not you, made Obama’s choice for him.
Also, let’s not forget how The Clintons roll — or I guess I should say “steamroll.” If Obama made the mistake of chosing her, she and Slick Willy would undermine every frickin’ plan, idea, or utterance that came out of his mouth, to ensure that he was embarassed by the American people. Bottom line is, The Clintons, they’ve shown, by showing their asses all through the primaries and up until now, CANNOT be trusted.
So, I say, if you bat$hit crazy Hillary for President or Vice President or Nothing people feel the need to vote for McCain instead, go ahead. You’ll just continue to feel the consequences that we as a country are feeling already after 8 years of Bush. And you won’t be considered REAL Democrats — just crazy Hillary supporters who don’t know when to say “when.” Go ahead and cut off your noses to spite your faces. And then I for one don’t want to hear a damn thing about how rough it is and how many soldiers are still coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan maimed or dead. Don’t want to hear any more about the high price of gas. Don’t want to hear any more about the bad economy or the embarassing image of our leader abroad. Just will turn a deaf ear to it because of ya’lls inflexibility, and predjudice, and yes, racism. I will turn a deaf ear to those complaints because YOU will have contributed to all of that with your McCain pick. So go ahead and do that, Dummys. And suffer the consequences.
Obama ‘08 !! Obama ‘08 !! Obama ‘08 !! Obama ‘08 !! Obama ‘08 !!!!!!!
I am all for John McCain. I am a Hillary supporter. If McCain wins, then Hillary for 2012. Go Hillary! Go McCain!
Those over 18 million who voted for Hillary … where will all her votes go? McCain is the name.
Some people don’t see quality and blessed fortune on behalf of all Americans even when it looks them straight in the face! Haters will never change and, yet, most profess to be conservative “Christians”. Most Republicans I have known throughout the years are the most narrow-minded , selfish, and uptight people on the Planet. Just look at those who work at Fox News.
With having picked a powerful team mate such as Senator Biden, I am even more deeply committed to casting my vote on behalf Senator Obama.
Although I voted for Senator Clinton in California, the media would have ripped she and President Clinton to shreds with the Democratic Party going down the tubes in November had Senator Obama placed her on the ticket. Being an intelligent and thoughtful politician, he has made the right decision!
Obama-Biden ‘08!!!!
ok jaye, you want my screen name here it is. you say ” fact is if Kennedy had not set on Vietnam as some way to save face we wouldn’t have lost all of those soldiers. You might say that our fate was sealed on that decision. ” that is a complete cop out and allows president johnson to escape responsibility for his actions. he was and is directly responsible for what took place in vietnam after he became president. johson had the power, as commander in chief, to order home all the military troops/advisers; he did not.
in 1962 kennedy sent 4,000 troops to vietnam; later he sent he expanded the number of advisors from 15,000 to 16,000. however, in 1966 president johnson sent more than 200,000 troops to vietnam. and as well know, it esclated from there. the vietnam issue may have started with kennedy but president johnson was responsible for the escalation.
what ever good he may have done at home is negated by his escalation of the war and his failure to end it. the men who died in vietnam under his presidency is testament to that.
It may be for naught. Obama is being sued in Philadelphia District Court for inelligiblity to be President. Seems there are issues with where he was really born and if he has always remained a US Citizen given what school records in Indonesia say regarding him (namely, Barry Soetoro, Indonesian Citizen and Muslim). The rumor about his birth place is that he was really born in Kenya (as his grandmother on his dad’s side and two half-siblings say). If so, his mother was too young when he was born to transfer “natural born” citizen status to him making him inelligible. Ought to be an interesting convention! Hillary fans, don’t lose hope. There may be a change!
Annie, you obviously don’t watch Fox. It isn’t News any more. It is more National Enquirer TV, and most of its anchors are moderate to liberal.
Joe Biden is a good choice and he will make a good VP. Hillary lovers: this is a lot bigger than one person…this is about the future of our planet. Do you really want 4 more years of the Bush policies?
Hillary Clinton is a great senator and she can continue to do an enormous amount of worthwhile work in the senate. She might actually be more productive in the senate. As president, you know she would have been stymied by the Republicans at every turn.
Support Obama/Biden!!! They will make a fantastic leadership team for America!!!!!! The whole world is rooting for them!!!!
Thanks to Jaye for her accurate posts about Vietnam. Earlier today I wrote a long post responding to “to groundcontrol” but I did something with a finger and it all went up in internet smoke. I HATE when that happens.
As for me, as someone who fought long and hard to get us out of Vietnam I don’t need to be lectured on the fact that many, many died in that worthless cause. I probably personally know more names on that wall than most here. I worked to get doves elected and hawks defeated. Nothing made me prouder than working on Charles Goodell’s NY Senate campaign and he was - gasp - a republican. But he was an incredible man and a true dove. Those were different days.
Our involvement in Vietnam started during Truman’s years and was continued and escalated by each president thereafter. I have no reason to believe that Kennedy would have handled it any different than Johnson did. Kennedy was very much a hawk and not very courageous politically.
But despite my vehement opposition to the war I cannot deny the greatness of President Johnson on domestic issues. There is no way that Kennedy would have ever gotten all that landmark legislation passed. Kennedy neither had the savvy, the experiece, nor frankly the will to do it. He and Bobby were too worried about winning re-election. Despite the mythology that has arisen since their deaths, neither did very much for the civil rights movement during the Kennedy Administration. They were, in my opinion, both moral cowards.
Johnson actually cared very much about the poor and minorities. His history is replete with his work on their behalf. Perhaps it was because he came from a dirt poor background. If you are really interested then read some of Robert Caro’s books on LBJ - particularly the first one. Johnson used every trick he could to get life saving and life affirming laws enacted - he cajoled, he weedled, he twisted arms, he probably even blackmailed legislators, to get them to vote for legislation - especially the racist Southerners - they never dreamed they would agree to support.
As for the war, it was still very popular among the American people while LBJ was in office. Heck, it was still popular in 1969 during the moratorium. Despite someone’s earlier inaccuracy in this thread, LBJ was never forced to resign by the democratic party. Aren’t they teaching history anymore in high school? That’s a laughable assertion. The Dems were beside themselves with panic when LBJ chose not to run in 1968. It was a foregone conclusion that he would have won. But LBJ to his credit decided that he needed to start to resolve the war and did not want anyone to be able to say that his actions and negotiations with the Viet Cong were politically motivated because of the presidential campaign. Least of all the Viet Cong. It was an incredible sacrifice because LBJ loved power. He loved being president. It must have killed him to make that decision.
In any event the whole point of my earlier post was that healing a party takes putting your own ego and personal dislikes aside. Kennedy did it with Johnson. Reagan did it with Bush. Obama should have done it will Clinton. It is clear now form the reports that he never considered her for one minute. She was not even vetted. Perhaps that is the most disturbing aspect to the 50% plus of the Democratic party that voted in the primaries. It doesn’t surprise me though.
When I was a lobbyist my committees were the 4 foreign affairs related ones. Senate For Relations, For Affairs in the House and the 2 Appropriations Subcomtes - For Ops. I watched and worked with Biden’s office close up for years. He is not the genius he thinks he is. He does have an enormous ego that doesn’t serve him well. And even though I could count on his staff to normally get his vote for our issues, I never liked him. As far as I’m concerned he’s just a blowhard who is in the pocket of the Credit Card companies who are the scum of the earth.
So in my opinion, it’s a bad choice. But given their egos and their behavior they are a perfect match.
Unlike some here, I have seen no evidence and I have no faith that Obama with his lack of real experience and his ever changing positions can resolve our problems in Iraq or our problems with the economy. As Biden has already said earlier int he campaign, Obama’s not ready to be president.
Not a fun election for me at all. Unless Biden again challenges someone to a sophomoric battle of the IQs. Now that would be worth a laugh.
sunny @ 08/23/2008 at 9:33 pm …
Hillary Clinton … might actually be more productive in the senate. As president, you know she would have been stymied by the Republicans at every turn.
############
What does this even mean? Do you realize that the Democrats control both the House and the Senate. The Dems will probably even pick up seats in both chambers in the upcoming elections. Why in the world would Hillary have a problem with the republicans that any other Democratic president wouldn’t also have? At least Hillary has shown that she can win bipartisan support in the Senate - which is amazing since they were set to hate her and they ended up working with her and respecting her. Just like Hillary won over the more conservative and republican upstate New York.
See this is the problem. People who don’t even understand how the government works somehow think that magically Obama will be a good president. Are there specifics you can point to besides that he reads a speech well? He sure isn’t very good in debates which is why he avoided them like the plague. I predict we’ll not see much debating in the general election either.
Jill @ 08/23/2008 at 11:35 am .
Anybody who thinks Hillary would help Obama get elected is deluding themselves. I like Hillary a lot; she’s the senator from my state and she’s a damn good one, but there are too many voters out there who absolutely hate her for some reason or another. They would vote for McCain just to vote against Hillary.
##########
Jill, I thought you might be interested in this item.
It’s from June 2007, when Biden was still running for President:
Senator Hillary Clinton (D) now has the highest level of base support among the major candidates running for President. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say they would definitely vote for the former First Lady if she’s on the ballot in 2008. However, Clinton is also just one point below the highest level of core opposition this month–46% say they would definitely vote against her.
On that count, only Senator Joe Biden (D) scores higher (47% would definitely vote against Biden).
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ … te_for_her
Now this, of course, was before Hillary started to gain in popularity in the primaries. I have always thought that the negatives on Hillary were outdated and media driven. Just like the misogyny.
But there you have it, another argument against Hillary up in a poof of smoke.
Peace.
I love it! Obama picks someone, who mere months ago says “Obama isn’t ready to be president. It’s not a position to get on-the-job-training.” Ah good times.
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 » Show All
Comment and Share!
E-mail to a Friend or share on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and more!