In addition, the Obama camp is no doubt hoping that Biden’s working-class background and Catholic upbringing will help their campaign gain traction with blue-collar and Catholic constituents. However, Biden himself failed to rally those voters during his own unsuccessful presidential bid, with most of them gravitating towards Hillary Clinton or John Edwards.

One significant advantage Biden has over several of the younger politicians considered as Obama’s potential running mates is a certain level of national recognition, a result of his many years in the Senate on high-profile committees, and his own bids for the presidency. However, unlike many others under consideration, Biden appears unlikely to excite many still-undecided voters. Also, the fact that he comes from Delaware, a small state with few electoral votes, means that the direct impact of his nomination amongst the electorate will be limited.

Biden’s other shortcomings may gain greater attention in the following weeks. Like Obama, he lacks the executive experience of a state governor or cabinet member, having spent his entire national political career in the Senate. Moreover, his long-serving tenure in Congress means that Biden is seen as an entrenched Washington insider, which contrasts somewhat with Obama’s self-depiction as a harbinger of change. Finally, Biden is popularly seen as a gaffe-machine. His bluntness occasionally translates well into sound-bytes, and he frequently added colour to dour Democratic presidential debates, but his verbosity has also often put him in hot water.

Potential negatives aside, Biden is seen as centrist among Democrats, and is well-respected in Congress on foreign policy matters. On the dominant foreign policy question of Iraq, he has opposed a strict timeline for American troop withdrawals, unlike some of his Democratic colleagues in Congress. However, like Obama, he also opposed the American troop surge, which has been widely credited for reducing the level of violence in Iraq. Biden’s own plan for Iraq, upon which he elaborated during his own unsuccessful bid for the presidency, involved establishing a federal structure with autonomy for Iraq’s three main ethno-religious groups.

... contd.