Foreign policy matters to dominate US presidential election

WASHINGTON: The Obama campaign believes that picking Senator Joe Biden as running mate ny Democratic Presidential candidate is a sign that foreign policy matters will be front and centre in the presidential election.

Obama has selected Biden to be his vice presidential running mate, balancing his ticket with an older congressional veteran well-versed in foreign and defence issues. Biden brings the Democratic ticket immediate gravitas on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Republican rival McCain has made no secret that he believes Obama's experience in public life ill suits him to handle the complex world situation into which the next president will immediately step, The Washington Post reported.
Biden, a serious politician with a far deeper resume than Obama, will complicate if not entirely blunt Republican attacks on the Illinois senator's readiness for office.

The 65-year-old Biden is a veteran of more than three decades in the Senate, and one of his party's leading experts on foreign policy, an area in which polls indicate Obama needs help in his race against Republican rival John McCain.

According to a Democratic official, Biden slowly emerged as Obama's choice across a long day and night of political suspense as other contenders gradually fell away.

The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, preferring not to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning. Obama's campaign had invited supporters to sign up for text messages and e-mails notifying them when the announcement was made, and senior campaign officials told FOX the messages will be timed to be received when the nation is awake.

Obama's campaign has managed to keep a tight veil of secrecy over the decision as media and delegates start traveling to Denver for a four-day extravaganza that will end with an acceptance speech by the first black presidential nominee of a major party.