By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff

Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware blasted presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain ’s judgment on domestic policy and national security in his acceptance speech at Denver’s Pepsi Center Wednesday night, casting the man he repeatedly called his “friend” as a follower not a leader.

As have other Democrats, Biden paid homage to McCain’s long Navy career, which included nearly six years in a Vietnamese prison camp. But he firmly linked McCain to the policies of the Bush administration and said, “These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader.”

Biden said the country needed “a leader who can deliver change -- the change everybody knows we need. Barack Obama will deliver that change.”

Obama made his first appearance at the convention to join Biden on stage after the speech, praising his new running mate, former President Bill Clinton, his wife, Michelle, and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton , D-N.Y., his rival in a contentious Democratic primary.

But he kept his remarks brief, to avoid stealing Biden’s thunder and to save his moment for Thursday night’s acceptance speech.

Biden went after McCain on a range of issues, including his continued support for the Iraq War, although Biden voted for it; proposing a corporate tax cut that would lower rates for oil companies as well as other corporations; and for opposing minimum wage increases. After each citing each McCain stand, Biden declared “That’s not change” and the crowd joined him in saying, “That’s more of the same.”

The 35-year-old Senate veteran began his speech on a personal note, invoking his upbringing in hard times in Scranton, Pa., and his life later in Wilmington, Del. But he soon turned to a forceful condemnation of the Bush record and its similarities to the positions advocated by McCain.

“As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history,” Biden said. “The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole with very few friends to help us climb out.”

The reference to Bush deviated from a script that originally referred to the “Bush-McCain policy.”

He portrayed the choice in the election as one between as an indefinite commitment in Iraq backed by McCain and a timetable for withdrawal called for by Obama.

“Now after six long years, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home,” Biden said. “ John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.”

Biden received a raucous reception from an audience that jammed into the Pepsi Center to hear a series of speeches, headlined by former President Bill Clinton, under the umbrella theme of “Securing America’s Future.”

Clinton joked, “I’m here to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden . . . though, as you will soon see, he doesn’t need any help from me.”