Biden takes aim at 'good soldier' McCain

America needs “more than a good soldier” as its next president and Republican John McCain only offers “more of the same”, Barack Obama’s running mate said today.

Vice presidential nominee Joe Biden said his friend Republican John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, offered no prospect of the change America needs and the choice in November’s election was clear.

“These times require more than a good soldier – they require a wise leader,” the veteran politician said.

“A leader who can deliver change. The change everybody knows we need. Barack Obama will deliver that change.”

Mr Obama was listening backstage and came out front to congratulate the 65-year-old Delaware senator on his speech at the end of the third day of the Democratic Party’s national convention in Denver, Colorado.

He will deliver his own acceptance speech late tonight.

Mr Biden, who has three decades of experience in the US Senate and chairs its Foreign Relations Committee, said Mr McCain was his friend, that they had travelled the world together and that it was “a friendship that goes beyond politics”.

“But I profoundly disagree with the direction John wants to take this country,” he said. “John thinks that during the Bush years, ’We’ve made great economic progress.’ I think it’s been abysmal.

“And in the Senate, John has voted with President Bush 95%, and that is very hard to believe. And when John McCain proposes $200bn (€135bn) in new taxes for corporate America, $1bn (€677m) alone for the largest companies in the nation, but no, none, no relief for 100 million American families, that’s not change, that’s more of the same.

“The choice in this election is clear.”

Mr Biden strongly tied Mr McCain to the unpopular presidency of George Bush - and also continued to add to his reputation for making gaffes.

Listing the problems faced by America, Mr Biden said: “That’s the America George Bush has left us, and that’s the America we’ll continue to get if George... sorry, John McCain is elected president of the United States in November.

To laughter and applause, he said: “Freudian slip, freudian slip.”

He went on: “John McCain doesn’t seem to get it. Barack Obama gets it though.”

Mr Biden, who dropped out of the Democratic presidential race earlier this year, said that in debating Mr Obama and watching him react under pressure, he learned about the strength of the Illinois senator’s mind and his ability to touch and inspire people.

“And I realised he has tapped into the oldest American belief of all: We don’t have to accept a situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it.”

He said America was “less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history” and that “the Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole with very few friends to help us climb out”.

On a timelined withdrawal from the Iraq war, which Mr McCain rejects, Mr Biden said: “John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.”

He went on: “Millions of Americans have been knocked down. And this is the time as Americans, together, we get back up.”

Mr Biden was introduced by his son Beau, who said “other duties” would keep him from his father’s side during the campaign.

He did not mention that the other duty was to report for service in Iraq as a member of the Delaware National Guard.

Beau, Delaware’s attorney general, also told the audience how his mother Neilia and 13-month-old sister Naomi died in a car accident on December 18, 1972, shortly after his father was first elected to the US Senate. Mr Biden was sworn in at Beau’s bedside.

Mr Obama’s wife, Michelle, was one of several members of the audience who wiped tears from their eyes as the tragic story was told.

Earlier, a film tribute to US veterans featuring actor Tom Hanks, and directed by Steven Spielberg, was played to the convention in a bid to strengthen the Democrats’ image when it comes to keeping America secure.