“I refuse to sit back like we did in 2000 and 2004,” Biden said after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, when the first indications that Republicans were planning a campaign of unrelenting negative attacks on Obama’s alleged softness or naivete on national security of the kind that worked so tellingly on behalf of George W. Bush against former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John Kerry.

“This administration is the worst administration in American foreign policy in modern history — maybe ever,” he declared in what may have been a preview of his main point of attack on Republican candidate Sen. John McCain and his staunch support for Bush’s hawkish and unilateralist foreign policies over the last seven and a half years.

“Rather than whine about how mean Republicans are when they hit (Democrats) on national security, as so many Democrats do, Biden has a real talent for responding with an appropriate mixture of mockery and contempt,” wrote Greg Sargent, a blogger on the influential www.talkingpointsmemo.com website.

I’m excited that Biden’s the Veep choice. Kaine and Bayh both had their strong points, but also significant drawbacks (inexperience and hawkish Iraq stance respectively). Biden will be able to campaign effectively and he’ll be a draw for some undecideds, but he’ll also be an asset once in the White House.