But he does like to talk a lot about how America and the world can benefit from his vast experience. In a TV interview in August with his running mate, Obama offered this, the most backhanded of compliments, to Biden: "One of the reasons that I love Joe [Biden] and one of the reasons I think he's gonna be such an effective vice-president is he's blunt when he's right and he's blunt when he's wrong."

You can put that down to experience, Senator.