Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said his vice presidential pick is appropriate because “[Sen.] Joe Biden gets it.”

Obama and Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, held a rally Saturday in Springfield to announce their partnership for the Democratic ticket in November.

In his speech at the steps of the old state capital, the same spot at which he first announced his presidential bid, Obama explained why he chose Biden as his running mate. Obama said he looked for a leader that would “work to put the country back on track. Today I come back to Springfield to tell you I found that leader … [Biden]’s that unique public servant who is at home in a bar in Cedar Rapids and the corridors of the Capitol, in the VFW hall in Concord, and at the center of an international crisis,” he said.

Obama’s remarks were carefully crafted to emphasize Biden’s accomplishments in the Senate, his blue-collar roots and — above all — his experience on foreign policy.

Several thousand people attended the announcement, passing through tight security that forbade umbrellas, bags, homemade signs and water bottles. Newly printed signs bearing the words Obama/Biden sprouted up in the crowd that waited in anticipation in 90-degree temperatures.

Obama credited Biden with working across the aisle to bring Democrats and Republicans together. Biden has worked in the Senate for more than 30 years.

Obama also criticized the Bush administration’s leadership, saying that he would work to end the war in Iraq as soon as possible, reduce dependence on foreign oil and deal with high gas prices.

He said Republican candidate Sen. John McCain would only follow Bush’s footsteps.

Biden, a 65-year-old congressional veteran, emerged as Obama’s choice after a secretive selection process that reviewed at least a half-dozen contenders — but evidently not Hillary Clinton, the former first lady who was Obama’s tenacious rival across the primaries and caucuses of winter and spring.

McCain called Biden a “wise selection.” But McCain indicated that he believed there was still plenty to criticize the Obama-Biden ticket on foreign policy.

“I know that Joe will campaign well for Sen. Obama, and so I think he’s going to be very formidable,” McCain told CBS News. “I’ve always respected Joe Biden, but I disagreed with him from the time he voted against the first Gulf War to his position where he said you had to break Iraq up into three different countries. We really have different approaches to many national security issues.”

David Axelrod, Obama’s senior strategist, described Obama’s vice presidential search as “a long process but it always pointed in Biden’s direction.”

Democrats coalesced quickly around the 47-year-old Obama’s selection of a seasoned veteran of three decades in the Senate — a choice meant to provide foreign policy heft to the party’s ticket for the fall campaign against McCain and the Republicans.

The Democratic National Convention opens in Denver Monday to nominate him as president and Biden as vice president, the ticket that Democrats hope to ride into the White House after eight years of Republican rule.

The Associated Press contributed to this article. Patrick Yeagle previously worked at the Northern Star.