Does Biden’s Place on Obama Ticket Put Day Job in Jeopardy?
EmailABC News’ Arnab Datta & Ed O’Keefe Report: When Joe Biden joined Barack Obama on the Democratic presidential ticket Saturday, he also joined another rare club: senators who run simultaneously for the office of vice president and reelection to the Senate.
Biden, D-Del., first elected in 1972 to the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body’ at the tender age of 29, is seeking reelection to his seventh 6-year term in 2008. And though Delaware is a reliably Democratic state, the precarious 51-49 balance of power in the Senate puts even more pressure on the newly minted vice presidential contender to clarify a murky situation.
If he is elected to both offices, Biden’s new term as senator would begin on January 3rd. The new governor would be sworn in a few weeks after, on the third Tuesday in January. No matter what, the current governor — Ruth Ann Minner, a Democrat — would appoint his successor.
Precedent for this is then Sen. Dan Quayle, R-Ind., in 1988, who resigned in between the election and his inauguration as vice president, and the governor of Indiana at that time appointed his successor.
In 2000, Sen. Joe Lieberman, then a Democrat, ran for both reelection to the Senate and as Vice President Al Gore’s running mate. He went 1-for-2 and kept his day job.
The Delaware constitution, however, does not explicitly refer to whether a candidate can run for the Senate and vice president in the same general election. Local papers indicate that state law allows Biden to run for re-election to the Senate as well as for the vice presidency simultaneously. With the legal issues unclear, the current Attorney General of Delaware may be called on to interpret. Luckily for Sen. Biden, the Attorney General of Delaware happens to be his son, Beau Biden.
If needed, possible replacements for Biden include his son Beau, Lt. Gov. John Carney, State Treasurer Jack Markell, or Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.
ABC News’ Matt Jaffe contributed to this report.
Sen. DeMint: GOP Race Could Go Until Convention 
Obama Avoids Questions on Contraception Rule
Probably not. He will win and hold the place for a Democrat to be appointed. Probably couldn’t even remove his name at5 this late date even if he was inclined to. Not that he is inclined to.
Posted by: Thinking | August 23, 2008, 6:54 pm 6:54 pm
Obama is going to lose anyway
Posted by: henderson | August 23, 2008, 6:55 pm 6:55 pm
Wrong. Obama will win, big.
Posted by: dem in chicago | August 23, 2008, 7:15 pm 7:15 pm
Gallup:
“Obama Lags in Democratic Support
August 22, 2008
Barack Obama receives less support from Democratic voters than John McCain does from Republicans. Convention week and his V.P. pick could be crucial in changing that.
Yes, for the worse. Obama is going lose.
Posted by: Samantha | August 23, 2008, 7:17 pm 7:17 pm
Lose the hate Democrats. Obama supporters need to stop attacking Hillary and her supporters. Having to convince them to not vote McCain is your OWN fault, stop dis respectting and hating your fellow Democrats, you are playing right into the hands of the real enemy, the Republicans. Hillary supporters on the other hand need to look past the rhetoric, ditch the hatred too and realize this is a race as was the primary and anyone running will do what they need to to win, they ALL do it. Hillary will always remain ‘our girl’ but for this moment it is Obama’s and now Joe Biden’s show. Help them out and let’s put a Democrat back in the White House so that America can proper and grow once again. Be a dedicated Democrat and a patriotic American, vote the Republicans out! Listen to Obama speak, listen to Biden speak, then be honest about who you think would make the better President, Obama or McCain? You will regret your vote if you waste it on McCain, don’t be stupid. It’s obvious, McCain is NOT what America needs, he is a liar and will be a continuation of Bush, no doubt.
As a staunch Hillary supporter, with Obama’s choice of Joe Biden, I am fully now behind the Obama/Biden ticket.
Lose the hate, let’s get it right this time, we don’t need another destructive Republican in the White House.
Posted by: Democrats 08 | August 23, 2008, 7:36 pm 7:36 pm
Just look all the Democratic support Biden received in the primaries. the sound equivalent is cricket chirps
Posted by: geevill | August 23, 2008, 7:38 pm 7:38 pm
I extremely glad Obama chose Biden.
This will be the easiest landslide since Reagan. Obama/Biden08. It’s a landslide baby.
Posted by: Vanessa | August 23, 2008, 7:48 pm 7:48 pm
People dont vote for vice presidents. Mr Obama will never be president.
Posted by: brigitte | August 23, 2008, 7:56 pm 7:56 pm
Thank God Barack finally dumped Hillary for good. She is such a pushy twit she would have tried to run the White House again.
Posted by: Doc Savage | August 23, 2008, 8:04 pm 8:04 pm
Biden will be fie. His son the AG will ceate a lopphole just like he issued a bogus warrant for Larry Sinclair
Posted by: geevill | August 23, 2008, 8:20 pm 8:20 pm
Obama actually lost election at the forum. The selection of Biden only nailed his coffin shut. It’s over, Obama……you’ll be going back to Chicago to do community work at Trinity Church.
Posted by: TJ | August 23, 2008, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
The GOP is going to have a field day with this. Lets see, 90% of the time, Biden supported McCain. Biden, on the record said Obama was too inexperienced run for President. Biden, like McCain, voted for the Iraq war. Biden also supported offshore drilling. Now, maybe Biden is a “mole” to be on the inside to bring Obama down. Added to this, the Hillary effect. You can bet that Bill will be up to something, and CNN just stated that the number of Hillary supporters voting for McCain has increased substantially since Obama’s announcement of Biden as his VP. I am going to LOVE to watch Obama give his concession speech to President John McCain!
Posted by: TJ | August 23, 2008, 8:31 pm 8:31 pm
Love Hillary, like Biden, will vote McCain. Biden just can’t take the stink off Bozo, but I liked how Obama introduced him today as the nest President of the United States!
Voters will never vote because of your #2……it’s McCain all the way and after Warren’s faith forum, it was a clear choice.
Hillary supporter for McCain
Obama better get that bump next week in polls….with the Hollywood production at the Conviction. He didn’t get it when Hillary dropped out, didn’t get it with ego maniacal World Tour, pressure on Biden to bring up the polls with Hillary supporters NOT JUMPING ON BOARD.
Love watching Fox with 2 dems and 2 reps discussing it now.
Everyone said it should have been Hillary for the WOW and CHANGE factor.
Posted by: Debra | August 23, 2008, 9:06 pm 9:06 pm
I really can’t believe Obama made such a TERRIBLE choice. Let’s think, who could have Obama picked that would amount to a bigger DO-NOTHING, LONG TERM, WASHINGTON INSIDER TYPICAL POLITICIAN. The answer: NOBODY. Obama picked the absolute worst anti-change politician there is.
I was really hoping Obama’s brilliance and strength would show through by picking a dark horse, someone NEW, INTELLIGENT, FRESH. But he did not. I would have preferred anyone, including Clinton, over Biden. I am VERY disappointed.
Posted by: Eric | August 23, 2008, 9:10 pm 9:10 pm
Obama may or may not win the US presidency, but if he ever decides to return home to run for Kenya presidency, he will get the biggest landslide ever in the world history.
Posted by: Obama-Yah-Wright | August 23, 2008, 9:28 pm 9:28 pm
Mr. Biden, please run for both, Senate and zero-bama’s President.
Zero-bama will lose, and you are needed in the Senate and beyond.
Posted by: fact check | August 23, 2008, 9:34 pm 9:34 pm
Who cares? Hillary ran for two years!!!
She went crawling back to her hole in the senate. They all do it. Too bad that fat, buck toothed idiot couldn’t have shown a little class. Now we are stuck with this big eared Bozo that nobody really likes. Remember the likeability factor. NO! You will in Novemebr.
Posted by: Ed | August 23, 2008, 10:20 pm 10:20 pm
I’m still trying to figure out why mccain confused the Packers with the Steelers last month while speaking to a Pittsburgh crowd. He said he used the names of the famous Steelers Defensive line of the 1970′s while being interrogated, too bad these guys weren’t even playing when mccain was being interrogated. He is either going senile or he was trying to pull one over on the Pittsburgh crowd, either way this is BAD news for mc-more-war. You can check out the article by going into google and typing “mccain steelers” and picking the first link.
Obama 2008!!!
Posted by: pt | August 23, 2008, 10:24 pm 10:24 pm
Obama could have done better with his VP choice, but, I’m really glad he chose Biden. With the Obama/Biden ticket, you get a SURE loss in November and the GOP will keep the White House. Biden is a loose cannon that will open his mouth, insert foot, and bring Obama down. I think its over for the Obama campaign.
Posted by: david from texas | August 23, 2008, 10:30 pm 10:30 pm
It all comes down to whether or not you think we should continue the bush policies. If you think the war should continue indefinitely, while we spend $10,000,000,000 a month, and you think that bush has done well with the economy then mc-more-war is your man. If you think that it’s time we start to get out of iraq and do some positive things for the average American instead of just the top 1% then vote for Obama/Biden.
Posted by: pt | August 23, 2008, 10:32 pm 10:32 pm
I love the new ad President McCain put out today about Biden. It gave me a chuckle. I know, with Biden’s BIG mouth, President McCain will continue to flood the airwaves with Biden and Obama’s stupidity. I just want it over so President McCain and First Lady, Cindy, can move into the White House!
Posted by: david from texas | August 23, 2008, 10:37 pm 10:37 pm
david from texas,
Unfortunately for McSenile, that stupid little ad is all he has got!
I am sure it will play real well as Biden starts to put further and further up McSurge’s A**!!!
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!!
Obama/Biden ’08!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Davis | August 23, 2008, 10:45 pm 10:45 pm
pt — What Congress does has more impact on the Economy than what President does. Congress is the one that passes spending bills and decides how OUR tax dollars are spent.
The economy really began to slide two years ago — shortly after the Democrats took control of both Houses of Congress.
If everyone would really look at this fact and Nutty Nancy Pelosi and Hapless Harry Reid are more responsible for the slide in the Econonmy than President Bush. They have lead a “do nothing” Congress after making such BIG promises about the “first 100 days”.
No saracasm — just facts.
Posted by: Gracie | August 23, 2008, 10:46 pm 10:46 pm
Slight correction,
I am sure it will play real well as Biden starts to put “HIS FOOT” further and further up McSurge’s A**!!!
Posted by: Davis | August 23, 2008, 10:47 pm 10:47 pm
McCain 08!
Posted by: Will | August 23, 2008, 10:49 pm 10:49 pm
Does anyone remember this line?
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” – Biden 2007
That was a disgusting statement and he is the DEMs VP choice????
“Really, if we live in a just world, this will be the end of Joe Biden’s political career.” – Marcos “Kos” Moulitas 2007
Posted by: Norman | August 23, 2008, 10:50 pm 10:50 pm
Biden supports on demand abortion. Obama supports late term abortion. So now we have “dumb and dumber” as the Democratic nominees. I’m voting for McCain. Dumb and dumber are going to bring down America!
Posted by: Will | August 23, 2008, 10:51 pm 10:51 pm
Gracie,
Actually the FACTS are that your daddy BUSH vetoed almost all of the Democrat legislation sent to him or it was killed by the RETHUGS in Congress…
They both wanted to make the Democrats look so bad that the were willing to do it at the expense of the American people!
Well no more, Bush, Cheney, McCain and all the Repuke-lican evil doers are about to have the door hit them in the a** on their way out onto the street in Novemeber!!!
And it is about fricken time!!!!
Obama/Biden ’08!!!!!!!
Posted by: Davis | August 23, 2008, 10:52 pm 10:52 pm
like that BTW, Will:
Obama = dumb
Biden = dumber
Dumb and Dumber….LOLOLOLOL!!!!!
Posted by: Alice | Aug 23, 2008 10:53:28 PM
Hey Alice, can I borrow this…i love it!
Posted by: Will | August 23, 2008, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
hmmm…..seems Davis is a little cranky tonite…I guess the Obamabot KoolAid is wearing off. Hey, you can rent “Dumb and Dumber” at Blockbuster this week for only a dollar. LOL!
Posted by: Will | August 23, 2008, 10:58 pm 10:58 pm
Once again, I am sick and tired of Hillary supporters that are willing to vote for Sen. McCain because she lost to Sen. Obama. This is a question for Hillary supporters (Debra, Geevil, Al, Sonia Trevino, Alice) that are voting for Sen. McCain. Hillary and Obama have the same policies (90%) and McCain policies are 90 to 95% opposite of Hillary why would you want to vote for McCain when his policies are different from Hillary policies? Please do not say Obama is a fake, please give concrete answer. If you do not have any answer, please do us (true Democrats) a favor, Please SHUT UP!!!!! I am starting to believe that most of you on this blog are truly Republicans.
Posted by: Chris | August 23, 2008, 11:16 pm 11:16 pm
I hear on CNN tonite that they are basically expecting an uprising with Hillary and her supporters at the Democratci Convention. I mean, c’mon, even the Obama supporters realize that the Democratic party is far from being unified this year…and because of their division, it will be their downfall as well. Choosing Biden, like others on here have stated, was a big mistake. He will only cause more division, and now the news leaking out that Hillary was not even vetted, her supporters feel like Obama completely disrespected her. Say what you want, the Dems are divided and will not unify before November. We’ll have 4 more years of GOP rule!
Posted by: Franklin | August 23, 2008, 11:28 pm 11:28 pm
Obama is going to lose. The public has no confidence he can do the job.
Once the hype was over, he had nowhere to go.
Only diehard liberals and kids who actually show up to vote will support him on election day.
Mc Cain will be president.
Posted by: samuel | August 23, 2008, 11:51 pm 11:51 pm
Davis -
If the Democrats have the majority they control Congress — Especially the House. Nancy Pelosi is a poor leader. Congress has an approval rating lower than Bush thanks to Pelosi and Reid.
And what is really scary is Pelosi is next in line for the Presidency after the VP.
They don’t want to pass any bills to help the American people because most of the public is dumb enough to blame the President for the economy. They want the President to look bad. All the Democrats want to do in pass bills with Earmarks for their friends (like the $1,000,000 earmarked in Obama’s bill to the hospital Michelle Obama worked for — and the she received a salary increase of 200%).
Posted by: Gracie | August 24, 2008, 12:11 am 12:11 am
Obama made a HUGE mistake in choosing Biden. I’m a Hillary supporter,not upset that Hillary wasn’t chosen, but I can’t believe that Obama chose Biden! Biden has inflated his resume’,pretends to be Catholic, but yet supports on-demand abortion, has called Obama “inexperienced”, voted with McCain in support of the Iraq war, and the list goes on and on and on! The GOP are going to have fun ripping Biden to shreds. Sorry, but this Dem is voting for McCain….as someone said, Obama is like the Titanic and it’s sinking really fast now!
Posted by: ByeByeBiden | August 24, 2008, 12:32 am 12:32 am
No sooner is Biden’s selection made public when he launches into an attack against John McCain over the meaningless drivel about how many properties (most of them rentals) he owns.
WHO CARES?!
Just what we need… more ATTACK ads… more negative crap.
Let’s hear what these two can DO for America instead of what McCain CAN’T do!
Just once!
Posted by: Rhys | August 24, 2008, 12:42 am 12:42 am
This place is the IDIOTS DEN for real!
Posted by: sal | August 24, 2008, 2:11 am 2:11 am
HI EVERYONE, been awhile..geeze, just when i thought worse could become worse, it did. i am a staucnch dem, and i voted for hillary all the way. but when she lost in the primes, i started to support …ug, uh, uh, uh….uh..uh. obama. even without a teleprompter.
now davis, you and i go back a long way. and just the other night on another thread, you said for your own very self, that oblamas best choice would be hillary. you and i both know this is true.
tonight i sit in disbelief that he could underscore hillary that way. he is a shameless fool….he is beyond ridiculous….i would not want to be in denver when he is there. i was there in the spring…all they could talk about was hillary in lodo……….watch out..
Posted by: carlasue | August 24, 2008, 2:16 am 2:16 am
No jeopardy. The fools in Delaware will keep returning Mr. Mouth reciting anothers plagarized words again and again. “Just words”.
Posted by: Sluggo | August 24, 2008, 2:20 am 2:20 am
sluggo, you are probably right. biden has plagerism issues, obalama has inexperience issues… biden has a big mouth..if they were to pick him..why didn’t they just haul off and pick the true king of tiraids….howard dean…!!!LOL
Posted by: carlasue | August 24, 2008, 2:24 am 2:24 am
let’s see…
obama/biden sounds like osamabinladen..right
Posted by: carlasue | August 24, 2008, 2:27 am 2:27 am
McCain 08!
Posted by: david from texas | August 24, 2008, 9:08 am 9:08 am
President Binen and Barack America, two dummies on one ticket – Fantastic!
Posted by: Norman | August 24, 2008, 9:45 am 9:45 am
OBAMA/BIDEN—–08—-12 NO McIDIOT/Mc?
Posted by: READY999 | August 24, 2008, 10:11 am 10:11 am