Biden Apologises to Obama

Joe Biden has phoned and spoken to Barack Obama after Biden's very unfortunate choice of words published in the New York Observer.

Biden said that Obama was "...the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Biden later clarified his statement to say that he meant that Obama was fresh with new ideas. He also said that Obama was the most exciting Presidential candidate he had seen.

Obama said that he didn't take the comments personally and he didn't think that Biden was meaning to offend him. However, he did say his choice of words was a little unfortunate.

Obama also released a statement saying that "African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate."

Biden's statement later in the day said that "I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone." It certainly wasn't a great start for Biden on his first day.