WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate, a pick designed to shore up the Illinois senator's foreign policy credentials in advance of the November election against John McCain.
Biden's selection was confirmed by a Democratic source after an evening of speculation that centered on the Delaware senator when it was reported that the other top contenders were no longer under consideration. Biden had been considered the frontrunner for the job in recent weeks -- a position confirmed by a last-minute, unscheduled trip last weekend to meet with the president of Georgia.
Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29. A month after his election, his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. Biden has not been seriously challenged since that first election -- a reflection of both the Democratic roots of the state and Biden's skillfulness as a politician.
Long rumored as a candidate for national office, Biden launched a presidential bid in 1987 that was gaining traction until a video was leaked to the press that showed striking similarities between a speech by Biden and an address by British Labour Party politician Neil Kinnock. Biden sought to beat back the controversy but subsequent allegations about plagiarism and resume inflation in law school forced him from the contest. ….continue reading
Timeline Of Senator Joe Biden's Life And Career
By The Associated Press
Nov. 20, 1942 - Born in Scranton, Pa., the first of four children.
Summer 1953 - Moves to Claymont, Del.
Sept. 1957 - Attends Archmere Academy in Claymont, a Catholic prep school.
June 1965 - Graduates from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science, enrolls in Syracuse University law school.
Aug. 27, 1966 - Marries Neilia Hunter.
June 1968 - After graduating from law school, begins work as a trial attorney at a law firm in Wilmington, Del., and serves as a public defender.
Feb. 3, 1969 - Birth of first child, Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, now attorney general of Delaware.
Feb. 4, 1970 - Birth of second child, Hunter.
November 1970 - Elected to New Castle County Council.
Nov. 8, 1971 - Birth of third child, Naomi Christina.
November 1972 - Elected one of Delaware's U.S. senators, beating an incumbent Republican.
Dec. 18, 1972 - Wife and three children are in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping. Wife Neilia and daughter Naomi die. Sons Beau and Hunter are critically injured but fully recover.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - With Barack Obama coming to town Saturday, you'd think the last thing Springfield police need is a blues-and-barbecue jamboree set for the same place and time.
You'd be wrong.
"It's actually a pleasant surprise," Police Chief Ralph Caldwell said Thursday. ….continue reading
Following In The Family's Political Footsteps
By Erin Plummer
Ben Arsenault, a student at Plymouth State University, was in his kitchen preparing for work when his mother, Beth, asked him when he was moving back to Plymouth. He will be entering his senior year as a political science major, though he might be taking a year off -- to work on his campaign for his election to the state House of Representatives.
Arsenault will run for the House this November, hoping to join his mother and grandmother in the statehouse and bring some new ideas to state government.
He will celebrate his 21st birthday in September and will continue to live in Plymouth, a location more convenient to his job as the campaign manager for Sen. Deb Reynolds' reelection bid. His focus will also be on his own campaign for the statehouse and that, combined with his campaign for Reynolds, has led him to consider taking some time off from school. ….continue reading
Johnny, We Hardly Know Ye
By Eugene Robinson
There's a candidate in this presidential race who remains a mystery -- hazy, undefined, so full of contradictions that voters may see electing him as an enormous risk. I'm referring to the cipher known as John McCain.
In fact, there are some basic things about McCain that apparently even McCain doesn't know. Asked Wednesday by reporters from Politico how many houses he and his wealthy wife, Cindy, own, McCain responded, "I think -- I'll have my staff get to you." The correct answer seems to be in the neighborhood of seven, but who's counting?
Eugene Robinson
I don't begrudge McCain his multiple residences or his $520 Ferragamo shoes. I understand that he was just being flippant and unresponsive when he said at the Saddleback forum last weekend that being rich meant having an income of at least $5 million a year. But it's a stretch, to say the least, for McCain to portray himself as a Regular Joe while painting Barack Obama as some kind of jet-set celebrity.
It's understandable that McCain would want to fuzz this aspect of his biography; at a moment of great economic dislocation and anxiety, people might question your ability to feel their pain if they know that your net worth may be somewhere north of $100 million. Much less comprehensible, and much more troubling, is McCain's habit of "Straight Talking" himself into the wilderness. ….continue reading
Shaheen Shining In U.S. Senate Race
By Kevin Landrigan
CONCORD - The presidential race in New Hampshire has stayed tight as can be but the Senate race isn't so close, according to two independent polls released Thursday.
In the Senate race, Democratic hopeful Jeanne Shaheen held onto her double-digit lead over Republican Sen. John E. Sununu, 52 percent to 41 percent, according to The American Research Group of Manchester.
Last month, Shaheen led Sununu, 58 percent to 36 percent in an ARG poll.
ARG President Bennett said Shaheen has kept a significant advantage among independents who said they preferred the former Democratic governor over the one-term senator, 61 percent to 33 percent.
A Rasmussen Group poll put Shaheen with a similar lead of 51 percent to 40 percent, but it's survey had Sununu pulling to within five points of Shaheen last month. ….continue reading
GM, Ford Seek $50 Billion From U.S.
Arnesen's Message Resonates With Local Democrats
Arnesen Brings Message
Of Hard Work And Smiles
By Jeff Green
(Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler LLC and U.S. auto-parts makers are seeking $50 billion in government-backed loans, double their initial request, to develop and build more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The U.S. automakers and the suppliers want Congress to appropriate $3.75 billion needed to back $25 billion in U.S. loans approved in last year's energy bill and add $25 billion in new loans over subsequent years, according to people familiar with the strategy. The industry is also seeking fewer restrictions on how the funding is used, the people said today.
GM and Ford lost $24.1 billion in the second quarter as consumers, battered by record gasoline prices, abandoned the trucks that provide most of U.S. companies' profit and embraced cars that benefit overseas competitors such as Honda Motor Co. ….continue reading
Michael Kitch
LACONIA -- Arnie Arnesen brought her own impassioned brand of liberal evangelism to a rapt audience at a meeting of city Democratic Committee at Woodland Heights School Thursday evening.
The former state representative, gubernatorial candidate and college teacher, who has enjoyed a nomadic career on radio and television, spoke without notes for some 40 minutes, taking as her theme the fraying of the American social fabric under the twin pressures of global competition and corporate power.
By John Koziol
Democrats, said Arnie Arnesen, can win this fall by working hard and smiling and by not succumbing to the siren song of offshore drilling.
The first woman to be nominated by either major party for governor of New Hampshire, Arnesen -- who styles herself as a cross between National Public Radio's Diane Rehm and shock jock Don Imus -- was preaching to the choir Thursday evening at Woodland Heights Elementary School when she addressed the monthly meeting of the Laconia Democratic Committee.
Arnie Arnesen delivered an inspiring message to area Democrats Thursday evening at a meeting of the Laconia Democratic Party.
Arnesen took as her text remarks of Herb Meyer, a former associate editor of Fortune Magazine who served in the intelligence community during the Reagan Administration, prophesying that "everyone is on their way to becoming an independent contractor. The new workforce contract will be, show up at the my office five days a week and do what I want you to do, but you handle your own insurance, benefits, health care and everything else."
"That person they are walking away from is you and me," Arnesen said, recalling that when her first daughter was born she was working 50 hours a week at three part-time jobs with no health insurance, because insurance carriers were not required to include employees working less than 30 hours a week in group plans.….continue reading
Arnesen, who lost the governorship in 1992 to Steve Merrill and, four years later, fell short of unseating incumbent Charlie Bass in the Second Congressional District, stays busy these days with her weekly television program, Political Chowder, and her daily radio program, Chowder in the Morning.
She also speaks widely, including before the two dozen or so members of the Laconia Democratic Committee which got to hear her address a number of topics, including the economy -- especially how businesses are increasingly foregoing having their own employees (and paying for their expensive benefits packages) in favor of independent contractors. ….continue reading
