Barack Obama escolhe Joseph Biden para seu Vice-Presidente. Uma escolha inteligente. Joe is Right

Obama escolhe o seu Vice, Joseph Biden. Um homem experiente na esfera das relações externas, área em que Obama poderá apresentar algumas lacunas e inexperiência. Com isto Obama fortalece-se políticamente e, ao mesmo tempo, frustra as eventuais expectativas que a sua mais directa concorrente no Partido Democrata, dona Hilária Clinton, manteve com ele na corrida à Sala Oval. Além de calar toda a aventual oposição que pudesse emanar do seu próprio partido e até da área dos republicanos, que se arvoram sempre em grandes conhecedores do mundo, mesmo quando alguns deles confundem Portugal com Espanha, tal o seu conhecimento de geografia...

Joe is Right

Joseph Biden, the 65-year-old Delaware senator has, by all accounts, a superlative resumé.

Biden's leadership of the foreign relations committee is expected to benefit Democrats during a presidential race that could be decided as much by Iran, Iraq and Russia as by the US.

His son is scheduled for a deployment to Iraq this year, and he has a palpable affection for Barack Obama.

Biden, first elected at the age of 30, is a demonstrably skilled debater. Washington has produced few sparkling wits, but he is one of them.

During a Democratic presidential debate in February, the famously talkative Pennsylvania native was asked whether he had the self-discipline to lead the free world.

Most expected one of his long-winded answers, but he shocked the crowd into laughter by answering: "Yes."

And he offered one of the most succinct putdowns of the campaign when he said of Rudy Giuliani: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence - a noun, a verb and 9/11."

Biden's drawbacks, however, go beyond his verbosity. His presidential candidacy in 1988 derailed after he admitted to plagiarising a speech by the then British Labour party leader, Neil Kinnock.

His long history in Washington also risks undermining Obama's message of "change".

Biden, who dropped out of the presidential race in Iowa in January, is of Irish Catholic heritage but is in favour of abortion rights, a key issue in US elections.

He originally voted to authorise the war in Iraq, but has since become a persistent critic of the Bush administration's policies there.

Born into a working class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania on November 20 1942, Biden is not a household name but was arguably the most well-known of those being considered for the vice presidency by Obama.

He was the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee during two of the most contentious supreme court nomination battles of the past 50 years.

He led the opposition to the nominations of Robert H Bork, who was defeated, and Clarence Thomas, who was later confirmed.

Biden married Neilia Hunter in 1966, and the couple had three children. His wife and 13-month-old daughter. Naomi. died in a car accident in December 1972, shortly after he was first elected to the Senate.

His two sons, Joseph R Biden III and Robert Hunter, were seriously injured, but Biden was persuaded not to resign to look after them and was sworn into office from their bedside. Both made full recoveries.

In 1977, he married Jill Tracy Jacobs, with whom he has a daughter, Ashley.

Biden is currently serving his sixth term as a member of the Democratic Party. He has served for the sixth-longest period among current senators, and is Delaware's longest-serving senator.