Comment by Raine on 8/22/2008 5:38:13 PM HEy... I just had a thought... wouldn't it be hilarious if we all got the text message from Barack Obama at 3 am?

It's Three Am, and this is barack obama

DENVER - The candidate of change went with the status quo.

In picking Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, Barack Obama sought to shore up his weakness — inexperience in office and on foreign policy — rather than underscore his strength as a new-generation candidate defying political conventions.

He picked a 35-year veteran of the Senate — the ultimate insider — rather than a candidate from outside Washington, such as Govs. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas; or from outside his party, such as Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; or from outside the mostly white male club of vice presidential candidates. Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't even make his short list.

The picks say something profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the 47-year-old Illinois senator worried that he couldn't beat Republican John McCain without help from a seasoned politician willing to attack. The Biden selection is the next logistical step in an Obama campaign that has become more negative — a strategic decision that may be necessary but threatens to run counter to his image.

Democratic strategists, fretting over polls that showed McCain erasing Obama's lead this summer, welcomed the move. They, too, worried that Obama needed a more conventional — read: tougher — approach to McCain.

"You've got to hand it to the candidate and the campaign. They have a great sense of timing and tone and appropriateness. Six months ago, people said he wasn't tough enough on Hillary Clinton — he was being too passive — but he got it right at the right time," said Democratic strategist Jim Jordan. "He'll get it right again."

Indeed, Obama has begun to aggressively counter McCain's criticism with negative television ads and sharp retorts from the campaign trail.

A senior Obama adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his boss has expressed impatience with what he calls a "reverence" inside his campaign for his message of change and new politics. In other words, Obama is willing — even eager — to risk what got him this far if it gets him to the White House.

Biden brings a lot to the table. An expert on national security, the Delaware senator voted in 2002 to authorize military intervention in Iraq but has since become a vocal critic of the conflict. He won praise for a plan for peace in Iraq that would divide the country along ethnic lines.

Chief sponsor of a sweeping anti-crime bill that passed in 1994, Biden could help inoculate Obama from GOP criticism that he's soft on crime — a charge his campaign fears will drive a wedge between white voters and the first black candidate with a serious shot at the White House.

So the question is whether Biden's depth counters Obama's inexperience — or highlights it?

AGAWAM - Ed O'Reilly worked the crowd at an annual clambake, introducing himself to dozens of potential voters with a jolly optimism that seemed to overlook the stiff odds against his candidacy for the US Senate.

He spoke about the sputtering economy. He asked about local issues. He ate clams with a plastic fork.

Most were willing to hear the pitch from the mop-haired former firefighter and defense attorney who bears a striking resemblance to Joseph Kennedy. Some even said they would vote for him.

Until John Kerry arrived.

Kerry, who has made few recent appearances in this small town next to Springfield, swooped into a pavilion near the Six Flags amusement park with a half-dozen staff members at his side and began shaking hands. Heads turned. Conversations stopped. Cellphone cameras came out.

"He's like the heavyweight prizefighter," said John Auclair, a 51-year-old police captain from Ludlow who made sure to get a photo with Kerry.

The scene demonstrated the struggle O'Reilly faces in trying to unseat a 24-year incumbent and 2004 presidential nominee when Democratic primary voters go to the polls on Sept. 16.

O'Reilly said he is motivated to run because he believes Kerry is out of touch with Massachusetts voters and has not spent enough time focused on the state. But O'Reilly has little experience in elective politics and is massively underfunded, with just 2 percent of the $8.8 million that Kerry has in his war chest.

Yet the scene in Agawam also showed that O'Reilly's surprisingly strong effort is forcing Kerry to get on the local campaign trail at a time when most Democrats of his stature are focused on Denver, not Danvers. Kerry has not faced a Democratic challenger since he won the seat in 1984 and the only serious race of any kind he has faced was his 1996 campaign, when he was challenged by Republican governor William F. Weld.