WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., filed papers with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday opening his presidential campaign.

"Friends, today I filed the necessary papers to become a candidate for president of the United States," he said on his Web site, joebiden.com.

In a statement posted on the site, Biden said that above all else he is running because of the Bush administration's failures in Iraq.

"The next president of the United States is going to have to be prepared to immediately step in and act without hesitation to end our involvement in Iraq without further destabilizing the Middle East and the rest of the world," Biden said. "Our safety is literally at stake, our soldiers lives are at stake, our energy supply from the region is now at risk and America's leadership among the world's nations is at state.

"President Bush will leave the next president with absolutely no margin of error in dealing with some of the most critical challenges this country has faced in the past 50 years."

Biden will appear Wednesday night on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

Appearing earlier Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning," he was asked about his fund-raising and relatively low standing in the polls: "This is a process. This is a marathon, and ultimately it comes down to the living rooms in people's homes in Maquoketa, Iowa, and Berlin, New Hampshire, and down in Sumter, South Carolina. And that's where the competition will be, and I think I can compete there," he said.