The AP summarizes his history:
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is one of the most influential foreign policy voices in Congress. An internationalist and strong supporter of the United Nations, he is a leading critic of what he sees as the vague, unilateralist approach of President Bush.
Biden voted in 2002 to authorize the Iraq invasion, which Obama opposed from the start. Since then, he’s become a firm critic of the conflict and pushed through a resolution last year declaring that Bush’s troop increase—now considered a military success—was “not in the national interest.”
One of the youngest politicians ever elected to the Senate—he was 29—Biden entered the 1988 Democratic presidential primary promising to “rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.” He reluctantly quit the race three months later after he was caught lifting lines from a speech by a British Labour Party leader.
In his latest effort, Biden proved to be a cheerful campaigner who mixed easily with voters, got along with rivals and displayed a self-deprecating sense of humor that leavened debates and speeches. When he was asked in one debate whether he’s much too wordy, he drew laughs with a one-word answer, “No.”
Long time Mitt supporter Hugh Hewitt says McCain must counter with Romney:
Romney, of course. The same factors in Romney’s favor — pull in Michigan, Nevada, Colorado and New Hampshire, the energy brought by his organization– are still there, but the pick of Biden calls for a very experienced debater as the only thing Slow Joe has going for him is the thousand or so primary season debates he has under his belt. Romney has the same sort of experience in the one setting where the veep nominees get the nation’s undivided attention.
There is also the stark contrast between Romney’s experience outside of politics –business and the Olympics– and the emerging success of his health care program in MA and the 36 years of all talk all the time from Biden. McCain’s enormous record of sacrifice and achievement already show up Obama’s thin life experience. If Biden is compared to Romney on the basis of the accomplishments of the past 30 years, the argument is over before it begins.
The fall campaign is shaping up as one of substance and achievement versus hot air; of seriousness on subjects such as the war, energy and growing the economy versus endless speechifying and gaffes.