Barack Obama has chosen veteran Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as his running mater for the November 4 presidential election. Biden has been a leading voice on international affairs and analysts say he would bring not only foreign policy expertise to the ticket but strong working-class roots.Obama's opponent, Republican John McCain, has sharply criticized the young Illinois senator for his lack of foreign policy experience.
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But the choice of Biden is likely to deal with what might have been an achilles heel in the Obama campaign.
Biden is a Roman Catholic who has served since 1972. He is known as a strong orator and chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, something analysts say would balance Mr Obama's self-confessed lack of foreign policy experience.
The son of a car salesman, he is also expected to appeal to the blue collar workers with whom Obama has so far struggled to connect.
The senator ran against Obama and Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination but dropped out after failing to gain enough support.
The Delaware senator emerged as a strong possibility after three other contenders - Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and New York Senator Hillary Clinton reportedly were bypassed for the job.
Others who were on Obama's shortlist were Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Texas Representative Chet Edwards., a leading voice on international affairs.
The McCain camp's immediate reaction was that the choice of Biden is an admission that Barack Obama is not ready to be president.
"Biden has denounced Barack Obama's poor foreign policy judgement and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realising - that Barack Obama is not ready to be president," McCain campaign spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement.
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