Barack Obama picked Sen. Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat who is currently the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, as one of his outspoken former critics as his running mate for the upcoming presidential election. Biden fiercely criticized Obama prior to him becoming the only de facto candidate for presidency from the Democratic Party, alleging that he is inexperienced in a wide array of crucial issues.

However, Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, has since acknowledged that Barack Obama has learned "a hell of a lot" in the mean time. His criticism now is being used by the McCain campaign against Barack Obama. However, Democrats applauded Obama's choice as the best available because Senator Joseph Biden would bring in his administration, if he ever gets elected, his outstanding expertise in foreign relations at a time when the United States needs a complete rethinking of its entire diplomacy (or lack thereof).

Biden is almost the opposite of McCain on national security, whom he blasted for supporting the Bush administration's policies. He is well respected by his Republican colleagues, some of whom have already praised Obama's choice. Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania are only three of the Republicans who issued statements lauding Biden's experience and patriotism.

If Obama gets elected, something that now doesn't seem feasible, Biden will be the first Roman Catholic vice president and the first vice president from Delaware. His first wife, Neilia Hunter, died in a car crash in 1972 together with an infant daughter. Biden remarried five years later to Jill Tracy Jacobs. He is a Senator since 1973, becoming the fifth-youngest U.S. Senator in United States history. Senator Joseph Biden is now the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Delaware history.

In February, Democratic Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware and John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska were aboard of the military helicopter that made an emergency landing in Afghanistan because of a snowstorm. They had to wait several hours for a military convoy to reach them and evacuate the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to Bagram Air Base, from where they left for Ankara, Turkey.