This foreign policy experience was important for Obama to harness as a way of countering criticism at his inexperience on the international stage. Biden had been in the Senate for 36 years by that point, including four years as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. It soon became clear, however, that out of the three shortlisted vice presidential candidates (Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, and Biden) that it was the Delaware senator that had the most foreign policy experience. Yet before being selected as Obama’s running mate, Biden was perceived as ‘a victim of terminal logorrhoea’, creating a reputation as an affable but serial gaffe-maker. During his eight year stint as Vice President, Joe Biden travelled to over two dozen countries as America’s envoy to help solve diplomatic crises. Biden also later revealed that when discussing the running mate offer with his family it was his sons who argued that his foreign policy experience would help the ticket – and arguably it did. Joe Biden initially rebuffed Obama’s request that he be vetted as a potential running mate, believing he could be more influential as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee than as Vice President. As pundits and world leaders start to interpret what kind of foreign policy platform President-elect Joe Biden will enact, there is good reason to look back on his eight years as Vice President under Barack Obama to see just how his extensive foreign policy experience is and why it led one media profile to ask if he was the most influential Vice President in history.
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