Sen. Biden. Democratics vice presidential candidate

Reuters - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has chosen Joseph Biden of Delaware, one of the longest-serving members of the U.S. Senate, as his vice presidential running mate for the Nov. 4 election.

Here are some facts about the 65-year-old lawmaker, considered a leading expert on foreign affairs.

* Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, shortly before he turned 30, the minimum age. A month later, his wife and daughter were killed and two sons injured in a car crash. Biden considered giving up his Senate seat but party leaders helped persuade him to serve. He remarried five years later.

* With a liberal to moderate voting record, Biden heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has been outspoken on international affairs. Although he backed the 2002 resolution to authorize the use of force in Iraq, he soon became a strong critic of the war and accused President George W. Bush of mishandling it.

* Biden's son Beau, a captain in the Army National Guard, is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq in October.

* A Roman Catholic originally from the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Biden would bring to the ticket strong working-class roots that could help Obama connect with the blue-collar voters he has failed to attract.

* Biden is the son of a car salesman and is less well off than many of his Senate colleagues. While many lawmakers own or rent residences in Washington, Biden commutes by train from his house in Wilmington, Delaware, 80 minutes each way.

* Biden, a frequent guest on political talk shows who seems to relish debating, is seen by many political analysts as well-suited to the traditional role of a No. 2 -- attacking the rival candidate.

* Biden has acknowledged a tendency to talk too much and he has been prone to verbal gaffes. Last year, early in his own failed presidential campaign, Biden apologized after calling Obama "articulate and bright and clean" in an interview with the New York Observer. Obama said he did not take offense.