Sen. Barack Obama used his first appearance with his vice-presidential running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden, to push a more populist economic message, emphasizing his pick's blue-collar roots and painting Republican rival Sen. John McCain as out of touch.
'This working-class kid from Scranton and Wilmington has always been a friend to the underdog,' Sen. Obama said of Sen. Biden to the 35,000 people gathered outside the Old State Capitol here, the same site where Sen. Obama declared his candidacy 19 months ago.
The two men plan to tour economically stressed swing states before arriving together in Denver for their party's nominating convention, which opens Monday.
Recently, the presidential debate has shifted to the candidates' personal wealth and who can best relate to voters struggling with high gasoline prices and mortgage payments.
Sen. Obama has over the past week adopted a more specific economic message, borrowing some of the populist rhetoric used by his former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton.
On Thursday, Sen. Obama attacked Sen. McCain for saying in an interview that he wasn't sure how many homes he had. The Obama campaign has launched two television advertisements highlighting the gaffe.
Sen. Biden, 65 years old, used his speech Saturday to praise the presumptive Democratic nominee and paint Sen. McCain as elitist.
'Your kitchen table is like mine . . . . You talk about how much you're worried about being able to pay the bills,' Sen. Biden told the crowd. Sen. McCain will 'have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.'
Republicans launched extensive attacks against Sen. Biden just hours after Sen. Obama sent a text message to supporters early Saturday morning officially announcing his choice.
A new Republican National Committee Web site calls Sen. Biden 'Obama's Off-Message Man' and provides a catalog of critical statements Sen. Biden made about Sen. Obama when the two were rivals during the Democratic presidential primary.
Sen. Biden played into this criticism on Saturday when he accidentally referred to Sen. Obama as 'Barack America.' The misstatement came after Sen. Obama introduced his running mate by saying, 'So let me introduce you to the next president -- the next vice president of the United States, Joe Biden!'
Sen. Biden, of Delaware, who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, could help fill a national-security void in Sen. Obama's relatively thin resume. Polls show that voters believe Arizona Sen. McCain is the more-prepared candidate to serve as commander in chief.
Sen. Obama called Sen. Biden 'one of America's leading voices on national security' and 'a statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong.'
'He looked Slobodan Milosevic in the eye and called him a war criminal, and then helped shape policies that would end the killing in the Balkans and bring him to justice,' Sen. Obama said.
Sen. Obama dedicated a large portion of his speech to retelling Sen. Biden's personal story. Within weeks of his senate election in 1972, Sen. Biden's wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He then adopted the habit of commuting by train from Wilmington, Del., to Washington on days the Senate was in session, a 1 1/2-half hour journey that he continues to make today.
A Roman Catholic, Sen. Biden often talks about receiving a 'second change in life' after surviving surgery on two brain aneurysms shortly after ending his first presidential bid in 1988. He suspended his second White House run this past January after a weak showing in the Iowa caucus.
'He is still that scrappy kid from Scranton who beat the odds; the dedicated family man and committed Catholic who knows every conductor on that Amtrak train to Wilmington. That's the kind of fighter who I want by my side,' Sen. Obama said.
Sen. Obama has had a hard time connecting to Catholics and economically strapped white voters in key swing states who largely voted for Sen. Clinton in the Democratic primary. The campaign is betting Sen. Biden can help bring in these voters.
'I'm here for the cops and the firefighters, the teachers and the line workers, the folks who live -- the folks whose lives are the measure of whether the American dream endures,' Sen. Biden said to applause.
He called Sen. Obama 'the son of a single mom, a single mom who had to struggle to support her son and her kids.'
After more than 30 years in Washington, Sen. Biden is one of the senate's least-wealthy members. With the exception of a $112,000 book advance, he showed little income in 2007 beyond his $165,000 Senate salary and the $20,500 his wife, Jill, whom he married in 1977, made by teaching at Widener University in Pennsylvania.
The setup at the Saturday rally was similar to the February 2007 event during which Sen. Obama declared his presidential run. On both occasions the Illinois senator evoked Springfield's most-famous politician, Abraham Lincoln.
The rally came with Sen. Obama facing criticism for choosing someone whose three decades in Washington could run counter to the Obama campaign's message of change.
'Joe Biden is that rare mix -- for decades, he has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn't changed him,' Sen. Obama said. 'He is still that scrappy kid from Scranton who beat the odds.'
The Obama campaign declined to give details about Sen. Obama's selection process other than saying he called Sen. Biden Thursday night to offer him the place on the ticket. Michelle Obama called Jill Biden Saturday morning to congratulate her. The two women appeared with their husbands in Springfield.
Sen. Clinton's supporters grumbled Saturday that their candidate wasn't taken more seriously as a vice-presidential pick. One person close to the Clintons said Sen. Obama didn't call Sen. Clinton or former President Bill Clinton to ask their advice or inform them of his decision, a detail that could create tension at this week's convention.
'We're not talking about any of that,' Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass said when asked whether Sen. Obama reached out to the Clintons. 'We're only talking about Joe Biden, the perfect running mate.'
Amy Chozick |
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