Hrm. I wish they had done this more sneakily. I mean, now I know. Why did I sign up for the silly text message?

It could be Biden, it could be something to throw the media off the trail.

We'll know soon enough, I guess!

CNN says that they have confirmation from two sources that it is Biden.

I want my darn text message! Might as well send it out now that it is all over CNN.

So much for getting the news first (admittedly, the reality of sending millions of text messages means that I probably would have seen it on the news first anyway).

Yep, CNN confirms it's Biden! Cool!!!

I really hope this is wrong. Biden would be a really bad pick.

Of course, we all share different views.

I understand Biden means experience to Obama, but this choice undermines entirely his message of change. Again this is my opinion...

And again, he voted for the war in Irak...

Safe choice, not exciting. Then again Barack didn't need to convince ME to vote for him; I've been on board since the very beginning. Hopefully, this will appeal to the undecided.

I love the pick, Biden is an attack dog of the highest caliber.

I think Biden is an excellent choice.

Look, we've got a lock on the "change" message. People who want change more than anything else are not going to vote for McCain. So relax about that angle.

We need a bit of balance. Someone older and more experienced is good.

I think it actually helps that Biden has some well-known foibles, together with a sense of humor. Obama can seem a bit Olympian, and the ticket needs to be brought a bit closer to street level.

The working-class cred is also very useful right now to underline the populist message we're emphasizing.

And above all, I think he'll be a good VP. We're going to win this thing, so that's the most important factor.

Obama/Biden '08.

I WANT MY DAMN SMS! =\

I just turned to MSNBC and they are on live. Is that Keith on the phone?

HUZZAH!

Really happy about this pick. This is just what his campaign needs: a Bad Cop (and I mean that as the sincerest of all compliments to both Senators).

Biden is going to appeal to older voters. I talked to my Grandmother the other night and she was pushing Biden right and left. I think Biden might make PA completely safe for Obama and push FL more in his column. I would not be surprised. Older voters love him.

after all the cloak and dagger, who wouldve thought the cover would be blown by something as obvious as the secret service.

David Brooks Op-Ed from Friday 22nd - Hoping it's Biden
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22brooks.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate. And while I don’t know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden.

Biden’s weaknesses are on the surface. He has said a number of idiotic things over the years and, in the days following his selection, those snippets would be aired again and again.

But that won’t hurt all that much because voters are smart enough to forgive the genuine flaws of genuine people. And over the long haul, Biden provides what Obama needs:

Working-Class Roots. Biden is a lunch-bucket Democrat. His father was rich when he was young — played polo, cavorted on yachts, drove luxury cars. But through a series of bad personal and business decisions, he was broke by the time Joe Jr. came along. They lived with their in-laws in Scranton, Pa., then moved to a dingy working-class area in Wilmington, Del. At one point, the elder Biden cleaned boilers during the week and sold pennants and knickknacks at a farmer’s market on the weekends.

His son was raised with a fierce working-class pride — no one is better than anyone else. Once, when Joe Sr. was working for a car dealership, the owner threw a Christmas party for the staff. Just as the dancing was to begin, the owner scattered silver dollars on the floor and watched from above as the mechanics and salesmen scrambled about for them. Joe Sr. quit that job on the spot.

Even today, after serving for decades in the world’s most pompous workplace, Senator Biden retains an ostentatiously unpretentious manner. He campaigns with an army of Bidens who seem to emerge by the dozens from the old neighborhood in Scranton. He has disdain for privilege and for limousine liberals — the mark of an honest, working-class Democrat.

Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, have trouble connecting with working-class voters, especially Catholic ones. Biden would be the bridge.

Honesty. Biden’s most notorious feature is his mouth. But in his youth, he had a stutter. As a freshman in high school he was exempted from public speaking because of his disability, and was ridiculed by teachers and peers. His nickname was Dash, because of his inability to finish a sentence.

He developed an odd smile as a way to relax his facial muscles (it still shows up while he’s speaking today) and he’s spent his adulthood making up for any comments that may have gone unmade during his youth.

Today, Biden’s conversational style is tiresome to some, but it has one outstanding feature. He is direct. No matter who you are, he tells you exactly what he thinks, before he tells it to you a second, third and fourth time.

Presidents need someone who will be relentlessly direct. Obama, who attracts worshippers, not just staff members, needs that more than most.

Loyalty. Just after Biden was elected to the senate in 1972, his wife, Neilia, and daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash. His career has also been marked by lesser crises. His first presidential run ended in a plagiarism scandal. He nearly died of a brain aneurism.

New administrations are dominated by the young and the arrogant, and benefit from the presence of those who have been through the worst and who have a tinge of perspective. Moreover, there are moments when a president has to go into the cabinet room and announce a decision that nearly everyone else on his team disagrees with. In those moments, he needs a vice president who will provide absolute support. That sort of loyalty comes easiest to people who have been down themselves, and who had to rely on others in their own moments of need.

Experience. When Obama talks about postpartisanship, he talks about a grass-roots movement that will arise and sweep away the old ways of Washington. When John McCain talks about it, he describes a meeting of wise old heads who get together to craft compromises. Obama’s vision is more romantic, but McCain’s is more realistic.

When Biden was a young senator, he was mentored by Hubert Humphrey, Mike Mansfield and the like. He was schooled in senatorial procedure in the days when the Senate was less gridlocked. If Obama hopes to pass energy and health care legislation, he’s going to need someone with that kind of legislative knowledge who can bring the battered old senators together, as in days of yore.

There are other veep choices. Tim Kaine seems like a solid man, but selecting him would be disastrous. It would underline all the anxieties voters have about youth and inexperience. Evan Bayh has impeccably centrist credentials, but the country is not in the mood for dispassionate caution.

Biden’s the one. The only question is whether Obama was wise and self-aware enough to know that.

They should have rolled out the text messages the very second they sent secret service to Biden, period. I'm a little disappointed in their lack of finishing off this grand scheme.

But I'm okay with the choice. I wandered over to TalkLeft and boy oh boy are the PUMA's angrier than ever. I was sort of hoping he'd bite his lip and choose HRC, but people ought to know she wasn't ever vetted. Did people need a memo months ago?

Biden will be interesting. He's an old fart, and I was hoping Obama would start to hit on McCain's age, but I realize the risk of alienating seniors.

Biden brings blue collar vote in a huge way, the Catholic vote, and is popular in Florida, Pennsylvania. Plus his foreign policy creds are sterling.

So I get it. And I'm behind it.

I just want my freakin text message, because I wanted the press to lose. Turns out they won, again.

I know it's cheesy as hell but - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPev5sEdTjg

Observations Three:

1. The GOP response is panicky-lame. I name him McPeaked.

2. Say what you will, either with Old Joe or agin, short of a thankfully astronomically unlikely convention coup, the fall of King Bubbuh is now complete.

3. Someone please buy Lestatdelc a drink.

Now that it's done, please, Old Joe, flash that million dollar smile whilst you skewer the criminal enterprise posing as the GOP.

It's done. Time to shine.

Biden is going to rip McWar's head off and piss down his neck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1op8vwF5UA

...please pass the popcorn,

LK

Just a quick point. It's my understanding that if there were a credible threat on the life of any sentator or prominent member of government, the secret service would be involved, candidate or no. I could be wrong.

Given the choice of a Catholic or a Mormon, Catholics will definitely vote for the Catholic. Was JFK the last Catholic in an executive office?