Joe Biden 2008 presidential campaign with some speculating that Biden was on Obama's shortlist of vice presidential candidates. On August 23, 2008, the Obama campaign that Biden would become Barack Obama's running mate. Following U.S. Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama's selection of Biden, the Senator's vice-presidential general election campaign began. During the campaign, he used his political experience to complement Obama, and debated Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Biden was elected Vice President on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. On July 16, 2010, the Federal Election Commission fined the Biden presidential campaign $219,000 for campaign finance violations. The
Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration Putin was a resurgent and perilous adversary; and this dismissiveness on Russia ″filter[ed] its way down″. During his campaign for the presidency, Barack Obama advocated a phased redeployment of troops out of Iraq within 16 months of being sworn in as president. In order to accomplish this Obama stated that he would, based on the conditions on the ground, redeploy between one and two battalions a month. Some of the forces returned to the U.S., while others were redeployed as part of a focus on the broader region including Afghanistan and Pakistan to confront terrorism. Obama was in office for