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page aib www.app.com ASBURY PARK PRESS SUNDAY, OCT. 26, 2008 NATION Biden reliable running mate despite gaffes IT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Joe Bi-den's performance as Bar-ack Obama's running mate has been pretty predictable even when unpredictable. The biggest knock against Biden during discussions on whether he would make a good vice presidential nominee was that his mouth tends to get him in trouble. And it has, with Biden recently raising the expectation that Obama would be tested by an international crisis soon after taking office a comment that Obama said -showed Biden's penchant for "rhetorical flourishes." Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin have used that comment to suggest that Obama is not prepared to deal with such a problem. That's not what Biden said he argued Obama would persevere because he's "got steel in his spine." But McCain is using a recording of Biden's comments in a new ad against Obama.

"We're going to have an international crisis to test the mettle of this guy," Biden says in a recording replayed in the ad over grainy images of a woman crying and people rioting in the streets of a foreign land. "I guarantee you it's going to happen." An announcer interjects: "It doesn't have to happen. Vote McCain." But despite the occasional gaffe that's been highlighted, the Obama team says Biden has been a steady asset. "Yes, there are those moments when you say, 'Wow, I wonder why he said said Obama adviser David Axelrod, but he added, "Even in the cold hard world of politics, you just look at his numbers. The American people have really embraced him and he's got a very favorable standing.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, speaks at a campaign stop at Nansemond River High School in Suffolk, on Saturday. ap photoi EARTHWEEK: DIARY OF A PLANET By Steve Newman "So I don't care if every once in a while there's one of those cases where you sort of say, 'Geez, I'm not sure I would have said it just that I don't care about that because at the end of the day, I think the upside is so great," Axelrod said in a telephone interview. Since the party conventions, Biden's favorable ratings have steadily gone up. An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted earlier this month found both Biden and Alaska Gov.

Sarah Palin were viewed fa- vorably by 48 percent of respondents, but his figure was up from 37 percent the previous month, while hers remained about the same as her earlier 47 percent And her unfavorables were rising, from 28 percent to 39 percent, while his went from 30 percent to 33 percent. A Washington Post-ABC News poll of voters in the swing state of Ohio this month found nearly four in 10 moderates were less apt to vote for McCain because of the Palin pick, double the proportion drawn to him as a result of her nomination. Biden attracted three times as many moderates to Obama as he pushed away. Biden completed his 170th interview Friday night in the two months since becoming a vice presidential candidate, according to a tally by his staff. He's been a constant McCain critic and has been on television at critical moments, such as going on all the networks after every presidential debate while Palin was declining to do interviews.

Biden has been the least vcV jr said they send e-mail messages frequently on the BlackBerrys they carry on their hips, and talk on the phone about once a day on average. Biden has said if the Democratic ticket is elected, he would like to use his 36 years of experience in the Senate to carry out a President Obama's agenda on Capitol Hill. It's an insider experience that Obama lacks, and a role that has not been Vice President Dick Cheney's focus. Cheney has been a forceful hand helping guide the Bush administration from the confines of the White House, while venturing to Capitol Hill occasionally to cast a tie-breaking vote or meet with lawmakers from his own party. "The advantage you have here is you've got in Joe Biden somebody who's seen a lot of mistakes made in Washington and who himself has led major committees," Kerry said.

"That is an enormous help to any president." covered by the national media of any of the four nominees, but he's generating steady local coverage in key markets. The campaign has dispatched him to areas filled with working-class voters and his fellow Catholics, hoping he can make a connection where maybe Obama can't. "He's going to a lot of places where Barack certainly didn't do as well in the primaries and talking to folks and bringing them over," said 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who is close to both men on the ticket. He said he encouraged Obama to pick Biden because of his experience in legislation, foreign affairs and politics. Axelrod said Biden is deeply involved in campaign discussions, and often will share what he's seeing on the trail and how issues are playing.

Unlike the Republican ticket that campaigns together frequently, Biden and Obama have mostly kept separate schedules. One aide i jf SoiB 6.5 110 rv fM 1 'I -92" n. "Voslok," Week Ending October 24, 200H Antarctica ti' Record Autumn warmth Swamped wetlands Deer in the Everglades are beinff forced out of their Mil Fall weather across the Arctic has been warmer than during any other autumn on record, accord habitat or are becoming trapped in some of the Produced by Feld Entertainment 'ju ing to U.S. experts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published the statistic, adding that the warmth is due to more ocean water being exposed to sunlight after the near-record melt of Arctic ice over the summer.

NOAA researchers found that the polar region was 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal over the past two months. The temperate autumn comes on the heels of two years that have seen all-time records shattered. In a warming trend that began in the mid-1960s, 2007 was the warmest year in the Arctic on record, followed closely by 2008 in second place. NOAA points out that the climate change is also bringing more greenness at high latitudes as shrubs begin to grow farther north on landscapes that were once rooted in permafrost. London blushes worst flooding to ever strike the wetlands.

A summer of heavy rainfall 'across South Florida ended a pro-. traded drought and brought water levels in the famed River of Grass to the highest on record. The water has driven deer and other species from the scattering of tree islands, which normally provide a dry haven, onto the few stretches of canal levees that are now the only footing that remains above water. Similar conditions in 1982 and 1995 decimated the Glades' white-tailed deer, bringing its population down from the thousands to the hundreds. The natural flow of the Everglades southward to Florida Bay has been blocked since a highway known as the Tamiami Trail was constructed from Miami to the Gulf Coast in the 1920s.

Plans to replace a section of the elevated roadway with a causeway are being considered, along with culverts that would also allow water to flow beneath parts of the highway. Warming habitat loss 3 PRESENTS WOKLbS FANTASY 7 Tropical cyclones A rare Arabian Sea I ill I cvc'one' designated 03B, brought locally heavy rain to the Horn of Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Tropical Storm Asma passed over western parts of the Indian Ocean while Tropical Storm Bavi chumed the western Pacific. Earthquakes A 6.5 magnitude quake in Indonesia's Central jjF Sulawesi Province was so powerful that people who happened to be standing near the epicenter were tossed around, Earth movements also were felt in northern New Zealand, Tonga, central Peru and Pennsylvania. Elephant rehab An elephant cured of a iffii heroin addiction has been deemed unfit to live in the wild despite kicking the habit, according to Chinese zookeep-ers.

Four-year-old Xiguang, or "Big Brother," had been used by illegal traders along the China-Myanmar border. The smugglers apparently fed him bananas coated with heroin to keep him under control. After entering treatment on Hainan Island, the bull elephant cried and made trumpeting noises once his doses of heroin were no longer available, the Beijing News reports. Veterinarians eased the withdrawal symptoms during a three-year treatment with methadone injections five times stronger than those used to treat humans. Despite being cured of his addiction, animal experts determined that Xiguang's habits and body odors had changed to the point where he will have to remain in wildlife parks for the rest of his life.

Distributed by: Universal Press Syndicate www.earthweek.com MMVII1 Earth Environment Sen'ice A mysteriously pink glow appeared in the sky above London for just under an hour on the evening of S.Vfls Wildlife experts are warning that rising sea level due to global warming is driving India's Sundarban ID V1V 7, rr-( Spe 1 Special Oct. 20, leaving tourists and U.K. capital residents craning their necks and scratching their heads. The Daily Mail reports that the glow appeared to hover over buildings before breaking up and slowly disappearing. A spokesman for the country's meteorological office said the pastel vision was most likely due to the lights of the city reflecting off a cloud.

"If you have very high cloud, as we did last night, you tend to get odd splodges of low cloud that will reflect the pink or sometimes orange-pink lights of the city from all angles, and stand out from the darkness of the sky," the unnamed Met Office spokesman told the newspaper. tigers out of their mangrove habit into surrounding villages, where attacks on humans are on the increase. The Sundarban wetlands along the India-Bangladesh border are slowly being eroded by the rising tide. This means that the tigers' most common prey, such as crabs, fish and crocodiles, is shrinking. A combination of poaching and loss of habitat has brought the number of tigers down from about 500 in the late 1960s to between 250 and 270 currently, according to wildlife officials.

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