When my daughter graduated from the University of Delaware several years ago, we sat in the stands of the packed stadium and listened to Senator Joe Biden give the commencement speech. The speaker we heard on that sunny day in Newark was the same Joe Biden that Barack Obama was thinking of when he made his vice presidential choice this week: smart, focused, clear, concise, humorous, and warmly engaging.

Biden had an audience of tens of thousands hanging on his every word, listening intently, alternately laughing and sighing as the senator managed the mood of even a commencement speech with care and rhetorical savvy. When the short speech ended, huge sections of the audience rose in a standing ovation. I have attended dozens of graduation ceremonies, but I have never before heard a commencement speaker pull his listeners onto their feet.

This is one reason why Biden is the best choice for Barack. Joe Biden has the capacity to reach out and connect to countless people, whether he is shaking their hands and looking into their eyes or addressing a stadium audience of thousands. In the face of the flood of cynicism and skepticism that characterizes so many of our views of Washington politicians these days, Biden is one of the very few Washington "insiders" who manages to maintain his constituents' faith, and hope, and trust.

Biden's life story is part of what accounts for this positive reception on so many fronts: the middle class upbringing, the tragic loss of a wife and infant daughter in a car crash when he had just been elected to the Senate for the first time, the daily train rides from Delaware to D.C. and back again. More important than these circumstances, however, are the details of Biden's public personality.

Biden comes off as generous when other politicians seem selfish. Biden wears his sincerity on his sleevein the best waywhen most politicos are masking their true feelings with poor attempts at posturing. Biden is caring when others are careless, concerned when other are cautious, and always ready to admit his mistakes, to remain humble and human when others are trying to present themselves as perfect. Sometimes his tales go on too long? Sometimes he says the impolitc thing? Any of us would be happy if those were our biggest problems.

I have never met either of these senators personally, nor am I involved in party politcsor politics generallyin any way. But I am more excited about Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden than I have been about any political event in recent years. This is one of the strongest indications we have yet had of the kind of president Obama will be, and I, for one, am ready to cast my lot with any candidate who has the good senseor should I say the wisdomto choose Joseph Robinette Biden as his running mate.