MrVicePresidentialCandidate

Joe Biden is to be Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket for the upcoming USA elections. It’s hard to find anything particularly positive to write about this anodyne man who will, if Obama wins the race to the White House, be just a heartbeat away from the most powerful job on the planet.

Biden, who has twice run for President, remained out of public view at his home in Delaware with friends and family. The normally verbose lawmaker maintained a low profile. Biden is known to speak a great deal without saying too much. Selecting him is a demonstration of Obama picking someone to balance his ticket rather than excite the voters.

Most of us will remember Joe Biden as the man who plagiarized the Welsh windbag, Neil Kinnock’s speech for his own election campaign. You can understand borrowing brilliant words from someone whose writing is better than your own, but choosing Neil Kinnock as your role model is indicative of both cheating and bad judgment.

The 65-year-old senator was first elected to the Senate at the age of 29 in 1973. Biden brings to the potential position more experience in defense and foreign policy - areas in which Obama is rated relatively poorly in the polls compared with Republican Sen. John McCain. Biden is a man who will leave Barack feeling secure as he is perceived to present no threat politically but might carry some blue collar white voters with him to their ticket.

Hillary Rodham Clinton - who was Obama's closest rival for the presidential nomination appears not to have even been seriously considered. Although her omission was anticipated it will solidify many hard line Clinton acolytes against Obama.

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware was selected by Obama late Friday night to balance his ticket with the older congressional veteran well versed in foreign policy and defense issues.

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.

During his more than 30 years in the Senate, Biden served at various times as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.

Obama's campaign team has arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.

The selection of Joe Biden is yet another demonstration of Obama’s failure to do more than assert his middle of the road credentials. To win the Presidency he should be seeking to maintain his previously more liberal and exciting momentum with the American electorate. However all his actions seem to achieve are a design for him not to lose too badly.