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Home > Waco Breaking News > Archives > 2008 > August > 22
Friday, August 22, 2008
AP says Obama picks Biden for VP
The Associated Press is citing an anonymous “Democratic offical” who says Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) is Barack Obama’s pick for vice president, to be announced Saturday.
CNN is quoting “multiple Democratic sources” for the news.
You can find all the latest election news on our Campaign 2008 page, including tonight’s latest AP release, a profile of Joseph Biden.
Here’s the full AP story:
Official: Obama picks Biden for veep
By LIZ SIDOTI and NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.
Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.
Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.
In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.
The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, preferring not to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.
Obama’s decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Obama had chosen.
Obama’s campaign arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.
Hundreds of miles to the west, carpenters, electricians, sound stage gurus and others transformed the Pepsi Center in Denver into a made-for-television convention venue.
Tucked away in one corner were thousands of lightweight rolled cardboard tubes, ready-made handles for signs bearing the names of the Democratic ticket — once the identity of Obama’s running mate was known.
While Obama decided against adding Clinton to his ticket, he has gone to great lengths to gain the confidence of her primary voters, agreeing to allow her name to be placed in nomination at the convention and permitting a roll call vote that threatens to expose lingering divisions within the party.
Biden slowly emerged as Obama’s choice across a long day and night of political suspense as other contenders gradually fell away.
First Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine let it be known that he had been ruled out. Then came word that Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana had also been passed over.
Several aides to Clinton said the Obama campaign had never requested financial or other records from her.
Other finalists in the veep sweepstakes were Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Texas Rep. Chet Edwards.
Among those on the short list, Biden brought the most experience in defense or foreign policy — areas in which Obama fares relatively poorly in the polls compared with Republican Sen. John McCain.
While the war in Iraq has been supplanted as the campaign’s top issues by the economy in recent months, the recent Russian invasion of Georgia has returned foreign policy to the forefront.
In addition to foreign policy experience, Biden, a native of Scranton, Pa., has working-class roots that could benefit Obama, who lost the blue-collar vote to Clinton during their competition for the presidential nomination.
Biden was elected to the Senate at the age of 29 in 1972, but personal tragedy struck before he could take office. His wife and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when a tractor-trailer broad-sided her station wagon.
Biden took his oath of office for his first term at the hospital bedside of one of his sons.
On Friday, he spent the day at his home in Delaware with friends and family. The normally loquacious lawmaker maintained a low profile as associates said they believed — but did not know — he would be tapped. They added they had been asked to stand by in case their help was needed.
No sooner had word spread of his selection than McCain’s campaign unleashed its first attack. Spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement that Biden had “denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing — that Barack Obama is not ready to be president.”
As evidence, Republicans cited an ABC interview from August 2007, in which Biden said he would stand by an earlier statement that Obama was not ready to serve as president.
Biden is seeking a new Senate term in the fall. There was no immediate word whether he intended to change plans as he reaches for national office.
Michael Silberman, a partner at online communications firm EchoDitto, said the campaign gambled when they made such a high-stakes promise and find themselves in a precarious situation where they could risk a great deal of trust with supporters.
“For Obama supporters, this is like finding out from your neighbor instead of your sister that she’s engaged — not how you want or expect the news to be delivered,” Silberman said.
Biden dropped out of the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination after a poor finish in the Iowa caucuses, but not before he talked dismissively of joining someone else’s ticket.
“I am not running for vice president,” he said in a Fox interview. “I would not accept it if anyone offered it to me. The fact of the matter is I’d rather stay as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than be vice president.”
He had stumbled on his first day in the race, apologizing for having described Obama as “clean.” Months later, Obama spoke up on Biden’s defense, praising him during a campaign debate for having worked for racial equality.
It was Biden’s second try for the White House. The first ended badly in 1988 when he was caught lifting lines from a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.
In the decades since, he become a power in the Senate, presiding over confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominees as well as convening hearings to criticize President Bush’s handling of the Iraq War.
Biden voted to authorize the war, but long ago became one of the Senate’s surest critics of the conflict. Ironically, perhaps, his son, Beau, attorney general of Delaware, is due to spend a tour of duty in Iraq beginning this fall with his National Guard unit.
Obama worked to keep his choice secret, although he addressed the issue broadly during the day in an interview.
“Obviously, the most important question is: Is this person ready to be president?” Obama told “The Early Show” on CBS. Second, he said, was: “Can this person help me govern? Are they going to be an effective partner in creating the kind of economic opportunity here at home and guiding us through some dangerous waters internationally?”
And, he added: “I want somebody who is going to be able to challenge my thinking and not simply be a yes person when it comes to policymaking.
Associated Press writers David Espo in Denver, Angela K. Brown in Waco, Texas, Glen Johnson in Boston, Randall Chase in Greenville, Del., Bob Lewis in Richmond, Va., John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Scott Lindlaw in San Francisco and Jesse Holland in Washington contributed to this report. Pickler reported from Chicago.
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U.S. News ranks Baylor third among Big 12 universities
Baylor University is rated third among Big 12 universities according to one weekly news magazine which compiles annual rankings for America’s colleges and universities.
From a Baylor press release:
The latest U.S.News & World Report rankings, released on Aug. 22, placed Baylor at No. 76 — only one point from tying five other universities at No. 71 — among the nation’s top national doctoral-granting universities. The ranking in the magazine’s 2009 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” represents Baylor’s second-highest ever overall U.S. News ranking, just behind last year’s ranking at No. 75. The magazine evaluated more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools.
Universities in the state of Texas continue to lead the Big 12 Conference among the U.S. News’ “Best National Universities.” Among Big 12 schools, Baylor is the third highest-ranked university, behind only the University of Texas-Austin at No. 47 and Texas A&M at No. 64.
Baylor and the Texas universities are ahead of University of Colorado-Boulder at No. 77; Iowa State, University of Kansas and University of Nebraska-Lincoln at No. 89; University of Missouri-Columbia at No. 96; University of Oklahoma at No. 108; and Kansas State at No. 130. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are both in the third tier.
Baylor is the fifth highest-rated university in Texas, behind Rice at No. 17, UT-Austin, Texas A&M and SMU at No. 66. TCU, at No. 113, is the only other Texas school ranked in the magazine’s top 130.
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G.L. Wiley teachers staying at new schools, WISD spokesman says
G.L. Wiley students starting classes Monday won’t see familiar teachers’ faces.
Instead of uprooting teachers who had been sent from Wiley to other campuses after the Waco school board ordered its closure, central office administrators who are certified teachers will be leading classes after a judge ordered the school reopened, Waco ISD spokesman Dale Caffey told Trib staffer Wendy Gragg.
Marsha Ridlehuber, assistant superintendent for accountability and curriculum, and members of her staff will be on hand to greet and teach returning students Monday, Caffey said. Students who were already assigned to different schools in the district may return to Wiley or may attend the new schools.
The central office staff are certified in the range of subjects required at the school, Caffey said.
Workers who were busy moving items out of Wiley will be busy moving them back in to ready the school for Monday’s opening. The district’s computer technicians had the campus’ computers up and running by noon today, Caffey said.
Waco Independent School District trustees voted 4-3 Aug. 7 to close the school, citing low enrollment. Wiley received its fifth “unacceptable” rating from state education officials this year despite recent improvements in student test scores.
But Judge Jim Meyer on Thursday ordered the school be opened, at least temporarily. Meyer said he granted the restraining order based on violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act by the WISD school board.
Austin attorney Robert Notzon, arguing for two parents of Wiley students and a group of East Waco community leaders known as Fighting to Save the Children, alleged violations of the act in their bid to reopen the school. They also are suing the district.
Meyer, after granting the temporary restraining order, set a hearing on the temporary injunction for 9 a.m. Tuesday. At that hearing, the judge will rule Wiley either be closed or remain open until the lawsuit pending against the school district is resolved.
Waco school board president David Schleicher called for a meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Waco ISD conference center to discuss the school’s future.
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Check out photos from Third Thursday
People went to Heritage Square last night for the Third Thursday event in downtown Waco, which presented the movie “Rudy,” an appropriate choice given the closeness to the start of football season.
The movie was just part of the activities on the square.
We have many photos like the one here on our online slideshow.
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Edwards, in Waco, mum on VP chances
U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards remained mum on his chances as Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s choice for vice president today in the hours leading up to the campaign’s announcement.
“I intend to actively support him in his election whether I am on the ticket, not on the ticket or running for re-election in Congress, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
Edwards’ name first circulated publicly as a possible VP selection in June after an endorsement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He would not say today how often he had been in contact with the Obama campaign, only acknowledging that he had been in the vetting process.
Obama will make his first official campaign appearance with his chosen running mate Saturday at an event in Springfield, Ill., where he first announced his candidacy. Edwards would not confirm whether he made travel plans to be in Illinois this weekend.
“I’ll be spending some quality time with my family tonight,” he said, playfully rough-housing with his son Garrison, who stood beside him.
He said he and his family were both honored that he was being considered for the VP. “I was really happy,” Garrison said. “I think my dad would make a good vice president.”
There’s more in this Associated Press story.
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Bhutto widower proposed for Pakistan president
Pakistan’s main ruling party today proposed the widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan’s next president.
The move makes Asif Ali Zardari (at right) the clear front-runner to fill the leadership vacuum created by the resignation of U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf on Monday.
It also could hasten the collapse of a ruling coalition that has struggled to tackle the growing strength of Taliban militants.
Pakistan’s election commission announced today that federal and provincial lawmakers will elect Musharraf’s successor in simultaneous votes on Sept. 6. Candidates must file their nomination papers on Aug. 26.
— Associated Press
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Small plane crashes into Las Vegas house; 2 dead
An experimental aircraft crashed into a house shortly after takeoff Friday, killing two people and critically injuring a third as the home burst into flames, authorities said.
It appeared the dead were the pilot and one person in the house, said a deputy fire chief, Kevin Brame. Another person in the house was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas in critical condition, he said.
The rear-propeller Velocity 173 RG aircraft crashed about 6:30 a.m. after taking off from the North Las Vegas airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
The pilot radioed that he wasn’t gaining altitude and was going to crash, he said.
Firefighters quickly doused the intense fire in the single-family home, in a neighborhood not far from the end of the airport runway, Brame said.
The aircraft was certified for flight in 2002 and was owned by a Las Vegas resident. No names have been released.
— Associated Press
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Obama may announce running mate today
Presidential candidate Barack Obama said today the running mate he has chosen — but has not yet announced — had to meet three standards to join the Democratic ticket: Prepared to be president, able to help him govern and willing to challenge his thinking.
Whether that person is U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards (seen at right) or someone else remains to be seen.
The Associated Press reports that those criteria did little to narrow the guessing game as Obama prepared for a massive rally in Illinois on Saturday to present his No. 2 to the nation and undertake a preconvention tour of battleground states. He planned to disclose his choice through text messages to supporters, perhaps as early as today.
“Obviously, the most important question is: Is this person ready to be president?” Obama said in an interview aired today on “The Early Show” on CBS. Second, he said, was: “Can this person help me govern? Are they going to be an effective partner in creating the kind of economic opportunity here at home and guiding us through some dangerous waters internationally?”
And, he added: “I want somebody who is going to be able to challenge my thinking and not simply be a ‘yes person’ when it comes to policymaking.”
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NASA destroys rocket after failed launch
NASA says it destroyed an unmanned suborbital rocket shortly after a failed launch early this morning from an island off the Virginia coast.
There were no injuries or property damage, according to a NASA statement, but the agency warned that debris from the explosion could be hazardous. NASA believes most of the wreckage fell into the Atlantic Ocean off Wallops Island.
The rocket, made by Alliant Tech Systems of Salt Lake City, was carrying two experiments. The space agency says it is investigating why the rocket failed.
— Associated Press
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Russia begins pullback in Georgia
Russian forces pulled out of positions deep inside Georgia today, two weeks after thousands of troops roared into the small Caucasian nation aboard hundreds of armored vehicles.
The movements came after Russia’s defense minister said President Dmitry Medvedev had ordered a pullback and promised that Russian forces would withdraw to separatist regions and surrounding security zones by the day’s end.
An armored column was seen moving away from a military base in western Georgia toward the border with the breakaway region of Abkhazia in the late afternoon.
— Associated Press
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Baylor athlete on winning U.S. relay team
Baylor’s Reggie Witherspoon was part of the U.S. men’s 4x400 relay team that won its preliminary heat today at the Beijing Olympics.
David Neville (who dove to get third place in yesterday’s 400 final), Kerron Clement, Witherspoon and Angelo Taylor successfully held onto the baton and finished in 2 minutes, 59.98 seconds.
The teams from Great Britain and the Bahamas ran marginally faster races in their heat.
BU’s Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt likely will be saved to run the final.
Check out Olympics coverage here.
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Fake Bigfoot was filled with roadkill
I hope your breakfast is staying down as you read that. The two men who perpetrated the Bigfoot hoax are saying, “Hey, it was all in fun.” But it’s apparent that not everyone feels the same way.
Car salesman Rick Dyer and now-former police officer Matt Whitton say they didn’t realize their joke would become the media sensation it proved to be. That joke cost Whitton his job.
Maybe the lesson here is you don’t joke about Bigfoot.
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Al-Qaida branch says it carried out Algeria bombings
The North African branch of al-Qaida claimed responsibility today for the devastating bombings in Algeria that killed up to 60 people this week, in a statement carried by an Arab TV news station.
The group described the attacks on a police academy, a military barracks and a Canadian engineering firm as retaliation against security forces for their crackdown on militants, described as “Mujahedeen,” or holy warriors.
The attacks “follow the perfidious operation, where a number of young Mujahedeen have been killed,” said a man identified as Salah Abu Mohammed, an al-Qaida spokesman, in a tape delivered to the Al-Jazeera news channel.
There was no way to authenticate today’s message but in the past militant groups have often delivered responsibility claims via Al-Jazeera.
— Associated Press
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Returning to typical heat
We have a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms today, but it’ll feel more like usual August temperatures as we’ll hit the mid-90s for a high, but the heat index should be closer to 100.
As steamy as it felt this morning, I don’t doubt it. Otherwise, we’ll have partly cloudy skies and a south wind around 10 mph.
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