NEW YORK — Sen. Joseph Biden spent his first day as an official presidential candidate regretting his description of Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama as "clean" and explaining why he had slammed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards.
The six-term Delaware lawmaker, who has said for months that he'd be a candidate in 2008, formally established his presidential committee Wednesday and launched a campaign Web site. It's the second presidential bid for Biden, who pursued the White House in 1988.
But the talkative Biden spent the better part of the day trying to quell the furor over his remarks. Late in the day, he issued a terse statement saying: "I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent, and I expressed that to Senator Obama."
In the weekly newspaper's article, published Wednesday, Biden harshly criticized Clinton and Edwards for their proposals to end the Iraq war. He also questioned the credentials of another leading candidate, first-term Sen. Obama, while calling him "a mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean."
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Biden told reporters that he'd used the word "clean" to describe Obama as "fresh and new," and that the choice of words was not meant to disparage other blacks who had run for president in the past.
Biden also said he had called Obama after the controversy to patch things up. "He said, 'Joe, I knew what you meant,'" Biden said.
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor confirmed the two men had talked, but later, Obama released a statement saying Biden's remarks seemed to undercut past black presidential candidates.
"I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate," Obama said. "Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns."
